This is probably my favorite set of carved/inlaid stocks by Alvin White. Done in the mid-1950s and made of birds eye maple, these stocks show his artistry in wood.
Bill
Bill

This is probably my favorite set of carved/inlaid stocks by Alvin White. Done in the mid-1950s and made of birds eye maple, these stocks show his artistry in wood.
Bill
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Love it! Thanks for sharing with us. We LOVE pics around here, S&W or not. Please feel free to share any more pics you have in this thread!
Thank you for sharing this - i knew he used different metals but had no idea it was so challenging. really interesting to know and totally makes sense given how he really liked to put detail into his animal engravings/inlays.Alvin White was noted for his high relief precious metal inlays. What made his stand out from most other engravers is the fact that he often used lesser karat golds (less than 24k 'pure gold) in the inlays.
That makes for artistic color differences as the lower karat golds have different % gold content alloyed with other metals.
Even slight shades of Rose color and Green are produced.
The lesser karat golds are 'harder' and will wear much better for raised inlay. Their engraved detail won't disappear easily with handling as it will when done on 24k (soft) gold.
Most jewelry is 18, 14 or 10k for that reason,,it takes wear and handling much better.
24k gold was not off limits of course and was used generously.
But the use of the lesser karat golds you just don't see much for one particular reason... That is they are very tough to work with in the Inlay process.
24k is soft and punches down into the dovetails cut into the steel to accept them very easily. Small sharp 'teeth' pushed up on the steel surface are also used to impale the soft gold upon.
24k does not work harden much if at all.
But when you step down to 20k, and then 18k and lower like 14 and then 10k,,you can be in for a fight if you are not ready for the change needed to work with the material.
It can be annealed though it won't be as soft as 24k. The real problem is that it work hardens very fast as you start to punch it down into it's recess on the surface.
The other edges want to raise and extend outward.
A difficult process made worse with a difficult metal to work with.
He made it appear easy and you won't find a lot of engravers using 18k, 14k, 10k for inlays much at all. Even during his time of work or now.
He used those as well as Platinum, Silver, perhaps Palladium as well as another silver colored metal. Copper looks like it may have been worked in a little as well.
Copper is an easy metal to inlay and pure copper wire is often used when teaching someone to inlay wire into steel.
He generally always signed his work. Grips included.
Some of the wood carved grips that are sometimes attributed to him may be from Germany after WW2 and purchased through places like Pachmyers and the like.
I know I have seen the patterns in a couple of those Dealers/Gunsmithing shops catalogs from the period with the carved grips available for numerous different handguns.
If AAW did them, I would think he certainly would want credit and would sign/mark them.
If they were done during the AA White Engraver, Inc. period with Larry Wilson in control,,they certainly would be marked as such.
Nothing escaped his claws.
omg it's funny you say this - he LOVED making art repros from different time periods. He liked to think of it as a prank because he'd try to convince people he had the genuine article!I spent the decade of the 1970's as a "picker" of antique guns at a time when most of the dealers in antique guns used Al for high end repairs and restoration. I had him repair the frame of a Wolf engraved 1851 Colt navy that had a nasty rust spot on the cylinder and recoil shield on the left side. The repair was perfect and could not be told from the patina on the original surfaces. He was superb at re-creating the classic engraving styles of the flint, percussion and cartridge eras before WW2. A very gifted man. IrishFritz
Here are a set of what I believe are a set of Mr. White's carved stocks.
They are on a pre-27 that dates to 1953.
Paul G