This is a trial print in copper. The final will be in Sterling Silver. These will appear on guns purchased for Active Duty Military.







Shown waaaay oversized so you can see the cut strokes in the die work. The mirror image of the design is hand cut into a hardened tool steel die block.

God Bless. Thanks to all those who have served.

Gary and Kelly

Beautiful work, Gary, and a very nice thought.

That's a special touch Gary. That will be a great memento for any service member. I can imagine someone home for a holiday gathering in their class A's and being presented it from a proud parent. OK, that's how it plays in my head. Hope we here how it really turns out.

Kent

Nice work Gary! That's a great detail to honor those who have served and those who are in active duty.

Julio

Gary, superb detail and a fitting memento
Regards
Neil

I'm sure tyhis will be much appreciated.

Gary,

Wow, to think that was all done by free hand on hardened tool steel. Takes a very steady hand, and limit the coffee intake?

Pedro

LIMIT coffee intake!! HEY ... there must be something in the forum rules about saving something awful like that! hahaha

I don't know ... the stuff has never bothered me in the classic mythical manner. Perhaps I'm too burnt out for it to have an effect. Or ... maybe all the pain pills counteract it. But then ... the pain pills have only been here for five years or so ... hummm.

Thanks. I enjoy doing the die work. Nice to have a product go out the door, and retain the tooling.

Gary

The cavalry and the artillery guys are gonna LOVE it!

One question...do you carve the negative image into the die before or after it's hardened?

Hello Rotor,

Carved after heat treating, when the steel is hard. Otherwise, the process of bringing it to critical heat - before quenching - would degrade the sharp edges of detail.

Gary

fantastic in both conception and completion