Does anyone know anything about the Ithaca Engraving Company. The receipt is from circa 1914 a couple of years both sides would be about right. Plates could have been advertising plates or even side plates but $237.86 is a LOT of money considering that Kornbrath twenty years later charged $27 to engrave a Parker shotgun. Before I try to find more info I wondering if they engraved guns or just printing plates, I suspect printing but just don’t know. Could be the plates for one of his catalogs which were large. Thanks,

Mike, if your receipt is 1914, I'd guess the Ithaca Engraving Company made the plates for printing the 1914 Adolph [big] catalog up the road in Batavia by Fix and Miller press.

Daryl, There is no date on the receipt, just my guess of the time line, I suspect that you are right but it pays to ask.

I agree with Dayrl, I have found listings in the old Ithaca City Directories for "Eng." First thought they may be gun engravers but they turned out to be printing plate engravers as I suspect this one is. I will check some early Ithaca Gun catalogs in the event they used that company.
[Checked several Ithaca Gun catalogs and found a variety of printers but not 'The Ithaca Engraving Co.]

A search for Fred Adolph:

14426 FRED ADOLPH CATALOG 1914 (REPRINT) - 68 page 9” x 10.5” paper covers. Reprint edition of Fred Adolph’s 1914 catalog. Adolph was an accomplished German riflesmith who immigrated to the United States in 1908. Six years later, he issued a catalog from a shop he had established in Genoa, N.Y. It listed a wide range of sporting rifles, shotguns and combination guns-some Adolph probably imported; but others he built. The rifles were chambered for a variety of potent cartridges, among them at least 10 designed by Charles Newton. One of only a few catalogs that list 2, 3 and 4 barrel guns. Used excellent. $18.00 (View Picture)

Not sure if you knew that, thought I would post it anyways.

I know Fred Adolph but suspect there are many readers who do not, thanks for posting the information. If there are some folks who have Adolph guns or rifles we could start an Adolph thread.

Mike, let's try this one. A pinless sidelock with Hiawatha scenes inspired by Harrison Fisher's illustrations in the early 1900 edition of The Song of Hiawatha.

Wow! There has got to be quite a story behind that gun. Do you have any information about the original owner or other details?

Maybe some info. on the original owner. I have not been able to confirm my suspicions, so I will not say until I know. Possibly he was a sportsman, deaf mute, and race car driver ca. 1915 or so. If so, an interesting fellow for sure. I did find an Adolph flyer tucked into one of his later catalogs that pictures the gun. Also have the Harrison Fisher illustrations that were patterns, but not exactly copied by the Engraver. We know Kornbrath did much engraving for Adolph, but I am not sure on this gun. I believe Kornbrath was credited with the Adolph gun built for Teddy Roosevelt.

Michael, Here is a photo of a combination gun that Fred Adolph made for Col. Townsend Whelen. I believe that there is a b&w photo showing this gun in an article about or an advertisement for Fred Adolph.

There is a lot of published information out there with both fact and speculation. Some of it is even my own. Shortly before Fred Adolph died in 1957 he put together a written history of his life and outlined all the troubles he faced and the reasons he left gunmaking. He mailed this packet to a magazine that was thinking of doing an article on him, they never did. I was able to trace the packet and I received it a couple days ago. In with the information were pictures of several guns with Adolph’s notes below the gun.

I’ll post the stuff on Daryl’s gun first then we can talk about the Whelen gun which I hope has not been refinished in the last year or so.

Please remember that this was written a few years ago.

Fred Adolph
Published September 2002

I have resisted writing about Fred Adolph. It’s not that I don’t have enough information. In fact, that’s just the problem. I have too much information. My Adolph file is the thickest of any research file I have, plus I have copies of several of his catalogs. The problem is that there is so much conflicting information on Fred Adolph. After many years I am just now getting a picture of the man and his work. There has never, to my knowledge, been a custom gunmaker in America who was as self-promoting as Adolph. His catalogs are works of art, one numbering sixty-seven pages in length. It’s apparent as soon as you start reading an Adolph catalog and looking at the pictures that every gun in the catalog was for the most part made in Germany for Adolph. The exceptions are the restocking of sporting rifles such as the Krag, 1903 Springfields and Mauser rifles. He sold drillings, double rifles, shotguns, both side by side and over/unders, single barreled trap. Also single-shot pistols made by Webber of Switzerland. How much work was done on these guns in Germany and how much did Adolph do? This has always been the big question. I have seen Adolph guns that were made in Germany with engraving done by R.J. Kornbrath in the United States, and a 1903 Springfield with engraving done in German. I have found no evidence that Fred Adolph did any engraving. Most Adolph guns have a lot of carving in the wood and the workmanship is uniform and appears to have been done by the same hand whether on a 1903 Springfield or a shotgun. I am not sure if any totally completed guns came from Germany. Many would have been imported in the white with possibly an inletted stock blank for him to finish, have engraved, hardened and blued. I do believe if you ordered a custom sporting rifle on your action the work would have been done by Adolph.

Both Whelen and Crossman, writing about Adolph in the sporting press in the early years, attributed all the work to Adolph. This is a mystery to me because they knew better, the proof marks on both action and barrels tell the story. For the purpose of this article I will stay with the sporting rifles and leave the shotguns, drillings, pistols and others for someone else to sort out.

Fred Adolph was born in Glantz, Germany one January 29, 1875. After a basic education he apprenticed to a gunsmith in Silesia, a historic region that is now in southwestern Poland. After his apprenticeship he worked in several European gunmaker firms such as Webber in Zurich, Switzerland, Steyr in Austria and Haenel, Sauer and Schilling, all of Suhl, Prussia (Germany).

Adolph arrived in the US in 1908 with his English-speaking wife Minnie and became a naturalized citizen in 1919. It has been reported that Adolph worked for several different gunmakers in New York State. The only employment I was able to confirm was that he worked for a short time circa 1909-10 at Baker Gun & Forging Company Batavia, NY, makers of the “Baker & Batavia Guns”. He did work during 1910 when living in Rochester for Bausch & Lomb, the optical firm.

About the same time that Ludwig Wundhammer made the first 1903 Springfield Sporter for Stewart Edward White out in Los Angles, California, Adolph made one for Townsend Whelen. (This sporter is a part of the NRA museum collection.) Earlier he had made a Krag sporter for Whelen. With Whelen writing about the fine work of Adolph there was no shortage of customers in these early years. Looking over Adolph’s catalogs and advertising it’s clear that many well known sportsmen of the day bought his guns. Some of his customers were Teddy Roosevelt, Townsend Whelen, E. C. Crossman, Charles Askins Sr., Charles Newton, Henry Ford, George Eastman, and Roy Chapman Andrews (the real Indiana Jones). Adolph’s guns were expensive; a plain 1903 Springfield conversion could cost around thirty-five dollars without stock carving or engraving. Some of his doubles sold for over a thousand dollars which would be several years’ wages for a working man. From a used gun ad in Arms and The Man May, 1919 “$175 Adolph rifle, 30 U.S. 24-ribbed bbl. Krupp, very accurate, handsomely checkered, absolutely perfect inside and out, $95.”

Fred Adolph was one of the first in the US to advocate mounting a short telescopic sight with a large field of view on sporting rifles. He designed high velocity cartridges and collaborated with Charles Newton on cartridge development. He also introduced rustless steel barrels and was the sole representative in the United States for the Poldi Steel Works of Vienna, Austria selling Poldi “Anticorro” Steel. Griffin & Howe offered Poldi Anticorro barrels as an option and most will be found on the higher grade and engraved G&H’s.

In these early years Fred Adolph was in a position to become one of the leading custom gunmakers in America. He went so far as to have an architect design the “Fred Adolph Factory”. His talent in advertising was every bit equal to his gunmaking. There was not a sportsman in America who did not know of Adolph. He also wrote articles in The Sporting Goods Dealer, Arms & The Man, The Outers Book, Outdoor Life and Rod & Gun in Canada.

In 1914 with the outbreak of hostilities in Europe the British, who had a strong navy, clamped a naval blockade on Germany and effectively cut Fred Adolph’s supply line from Germany. I believe that he must have had a lot of money tied up in orders that would never be delivered. He tried to carry on but as the war progressed his money problems only got worse. Stockmaking alone was not enough to keep him financially solvent. It was not long before magazines like Outdoor Life wrote warnings about sending Adolph money. Ads in the classified sections showed up with people trying to locate Adolph or other people who had problems with him. When the war was over there was little improvement in his financial position and it’s possible that none of the magazines would run his advertisements. The Genoa, New York, Tribune where this was published reported on July 8, 1921 that Adolph had returned on the liner “Manchuria” from Hamburg, Germany. I suspect that he was in Germany trying to recover his war losses and establish new business connections. By 1926 the bank had repossessed his house and for all practical purposes he had disappeared. In 1935 Adolph is in Brooklyn, NY and writes a letter to Sedgley trying to sell him on the idea of an over/under rifle-shotgun. He says that he had been out of the gun business for some time. On April 1, 1936 he goes to work for Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan as a tool maker and retires from that job on June 30, 1952. I find him again living at the Hotel La Brea, Inglewood, California in 1957 at age eighty-two. He died in Los Angles, California August 15, 1957.
From his problems before WWI until he went to work for Ford in 1936 there are a lot of missing years. Trying to find a man who many considered to be one the best gunmakers in America during those years has been very frustrating. Keep in mind that I am still researching his past and more information may surface. I would like to tell you where I think he was for several of those years. I believe that he lived in the greater New York City area, got up every morning and took the subway to 234 East 39 Street, sat at his workbench and stocked rifles for Griffin & Howe. Please compare the pictured “Griffin & Howe” rifle to the Adolph Kurz-Mauser or Adolph-Springfield ad. I have seen several early G&H’s before they standardized their style and discontinued the stock carving that looked like the work of Fred Adolph. At first I just thought that they where copying his style, now I’m not sure. One rifle G&H No. 139 is marked with both G&H and Adolph’s name. It’s quite possible that this one was sent to him for stocking because it was an early 1923 gun. The others just have the G&H name, so the possibilities are intriguing.

Identifying an Adolph:
His first business address was at 10 Ariel Park in Rochester, New York. There are at least two known guns marked “Fred Adolph Rochester, New York”. Sometime between February 1911 and June 1911 he moved to Genoa, New York.

Once you have examined a few of the carved Adolph rifles they are not hard to identify. However the plain ones without stock carving and without provenance can be very difficult to attribute to Adolph. Notice how Adolph used his coat-of-arms as the initial shield on the Cook rifle. I wish he had done all his rifles this way; it would have made my job much easier. Few 1903 Springfield sporters made by Fred Adolph are signed. Some of the Mausers such as the pictured Kurtz sporter are marked on the barrel “Adolph Mauser Cal. 25”. Although marked 25 caliber the rifle is chambered for the 6.5x54mm Mauser - not to be confused with the longer 6.5x54mm Mannlicher-Schoenauer. I have seen other Mausers made by him that are stamped on the receiver with individual stamps “Fred Adolph Genoa N.Y.” When I saw the first one marked this way I was sure that the marking was bogus. Now having seen three all the same I am convinced that these markings are correct.


From sometime in the late 1920’s until his death I can find no evidence that Adolph, who was such a talented gunmaker, ever picked up another inletting chisel. He wrote and published poetry & music and painted, but turned his back on the thing that had cost him his reputation. I like the rifles that Fred Adolph made. The workmanship is first class; the fit and finish are beyond reproach. Today the carved stocks of Adolph’s may seem a little out of place compared to the modern custom rifle. With so many unanswered questions his work makes one wonder what could have been if he had continued gunsmithing. They are, however, a wonderful portal to the very beginning of the American custom sporting rifles as we know them today.

Mike, your gun photographs above are my gun. The photos and written [typed] text came from Adolph. The engraving sketch seems to come from a "sister" gun. All so very interesting in relation to the development of the custom shotgun, rifle, pistol, and related cartridges. Here is a copy of the flyer I found in a later distributed catalog, around 1924, using the same "big" catalog of 1914 or so with pasted in additions. Note the flyer apparently uses the same photograph that you furnished. Thanks for publishing the 2002 written history. Hopefully some of the "holes" in the Adolph story can be filled in.

Bob Beach, When your going thought all those dusty records you might see if there is anything on an employ by the name of Fred Adolph.

Whelen's O/U as you can see the buttstock has been replaced.

Whelen with this gun in Panama.

Michael, asyouremeber I told you about it long time ago.
S.Buturlin wrote in his 1926 short book "Shotgun and Shooting from it":
- In America fine guns, but extremely expensive ones are making mostly by Adolph and Wundhammer, also by Fox and some others.

Daryl, after looking a "Sister" over I think the drawing is for your gun.

Mike, you are right.The position of the "frame" for the lockplate fooled me for a moment. Minnehaha looks older on this gun and has not had time to braid her hair. Thanks

Mike and all, here are a few more details of the Hiawatha gun.

Daryl, Thanks for sharing, one of the most interesting custom shotguns I know of.

Bob, Where did you go?

Michael, Still here. I'm working from home on one of the A&F sales record books from the 30's but if I can get into the store tomorrow I'll see if there are any old employee records. I know that there are some books with employee records, from the 50's or 60's, I believe, with things like Christmas Club accounts. I'll do a more thorough search as soon as I can. There is a journal of business minutes from when Seymour Griffin first started that I have only looked at briefly, to determine what it was. I'll have a look at that too since it dates from the 20's and that's when you believe Adoplh may have been employed there.

Bob,

If he worked there it would have been late 20's and early 30's. He could have worked from home, wherever that might have been. There are still, even with the new information I have, a lot of missing years. I have seen several G&H rifles that I know were stocked by Adolph, where he did the work I don't know.

If you would like to talk more about the Whelen gun off line email me. I've been having nightmares of some well indented gunsmith trying to file off the pits on the outside of the barrel ;-).

A Adolph Springfield for the rifle fans.

Bob, have you recently uncovered any very early G&H rifle records that were previously unavailable for research? What do you consider "early" as far as research on G&H rifles is concerned? How early is information available?

The early G&H folks were craftsmen first and bookkeepers/archivists way down the list. I have not located any records prior to their takeover by A&F except for a book of minutes from the formation of the business - mostly about ownership, name, partners, stock issuance, etc. I'll see if there is anything that I have missed, which is entirely possible. BTW, beautiful photo of the Adolph rifle. I'm going to photograph a G&H rifle tomorrow that FA is believed to have done the stock for. If the photos come out I'll post them here.

Here's another Adolph double. This one is a 20 bore. Made for a fellow who had his son pictured on the bottom of the receiver. This gun, too, is in Adolph's catalog.

OT..somewhat.
On Michael Petrov's Adolph Springfield rifle picture there is a feature I'd like to get the name for.
On the very nose of the comb, there is a little flared knob/projection...undercut to create the physical shape. I have this same feature on my H&R SxS 10 GA Damascus, c.early 1880s.
What is this "woodworker's gothic" feature called??
Thanks.

I have seen that on Baker, Syracuse Arms, and maybe some other guns, too. Kind of nice to look at. I don't know what to call it.

Is there an inlay at the flute or is that a reflection?

No inlay, just poor lighting.

Here's a similar flute on a Baker with an inlay.

I like that. A similar inlay in ivory may be part of my next project gun.

Gents, thanks for the wonderful thread, it's a lovely Christmas gift.

Ian,
The comb flute on the Adolph stocked G&H is very distictive. It looks so different because the flute's edge is slanted upward towards the heel, instead of a standard down-angle towards the toe. Doug Mann has stocked with that style comb flute and he didn't have a name for them when I asked. The design seems to leave more room for the meat of one's thumb as well as looking so cool. Next time you have the H&R 10 GA out of the safe, I'd appreciate it if you'd tell me if it's more complex a design than I'm seeing in the pictures.

Brent

[/quote]Ian,The comb flute on the Adolph stocked G&H is very distictive. Brent [/quote]

Which G&H is this, the picture I posted is a Adolph circa 1916 rifle?

Mr. Mixter was a captain of industry and it seems he had little time for hunting judging by the condition of the rifle.

Gentlemen, Here is a G&H rifle believed to have been stocked by Fred Adolph.





It also has some wonderful engraving.


To see more pics of this rifle, visit the album at
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=18600884&uid=10298763

Mr. Beach, your photo is wonderful. How does one figure out who engraved these guns ? We often think Kornbrath, but are we sure. Who has other examples ?

I don't want to step on any toes, but I have read that "All early engraved G&H rifles were engraved by Rudolph Kornbrath." Is that a true statement. It sure would make it easy to put a label on an engraving job.

I hunted for info on custom guns for years as a kid growing up in Maryland in the late 50's and early 60's and now I go to this and other sites on the internet and learn and see more than I did in 10 years as a young man.Wonderful,wonderful.

If you are anywhere near my age, there was no good information on custom guns except for the odd article in very old American Rifleman and maybe the odd Gun Report. Maybe Michael and Daryl will tell us where else we could have looked. Of course, some of the old masters were still around and we could have visited them. Kids today could be visiting the "New Masters" but they had better bring their Daddy's checkbooks. Murphy

I think it is hit or miss. I am 19, so I am probably the youngest member of the forum. Some guys like to see younger people getting into doubles, and treat me with all the respect and enthusiasm I could ask for. Others see me as just another college student without the big checkbook, and treat me accordingly. I am fortunate to have some great mentors.

Thanks folks, for the comments and replies to my question on the Adolph Springfield rifle "comb flute".
I was referring to the M1903 Springfield pic posted my Michael Petrov 21 Dec at 02:56PM.
Yeti: the "comb flute" on my H&R SxS 10GA Damascus is virtually identical to the Adolph rendition as seen in Mike Petrov's pic. I'm very taken with it, as it strikes me as so "neat" and understated. This paticular little feature seems to have fallen out of use in the early 20th century - otherwise we would have more examples and at least one or two "collector" names for it. There was probably a word for it "back then", similar in vintage to the collector's term "widow's peak".
Thanks for the input.

I could never find the information I wanted on custom makers so I did the research myself and I'm still learning something new everyday. I no sooner think I have things figured out then it's back to the drawing board. A man I did research on and published info I'll have to redo because of a letter now for sale on eBay with a lot of good information in it.

I believe that the majority of early G&H rifles were engraved by Kornbrath. Fugger worked with him for a couple years then started doing G&H stuff, I'm not sure when he relocated to NY from Hartford and started working for G&H full time.

I don't want to embarrass my friend, who owns the G&H so I'll leave it up to him to either log on here or let me know it's OK to give info on the engraving.

It's a neat feature, I'll post a picture looking at it from the top.

Two quick ones.

And an overall picture of the Adolph.


Seems Santa had to bring his slay into Anchorage for a pre-flight and he called this evening to say that as long as he was in town he might as well drop of my Christmas present which is a Adolph rifle. If all goes well I'll go over to the hanger in the AM and get it, pictures to follow.

Eightbore, you asked about getting info on these old guns. For me, when I was in Alaska for 30 years, no local supply of information on guns was available. Since the early 70s I had an interest and appreciation of nice shotguns { doubles and traps from earlier makers }. Being that distance from the mainstream of used shotgun commerce, I had to put ads in Shotgun News, later Gun List, and sometimes magazines. Early replies were 3/4 from the NY area. I started collecting old original catalogs when they were $5-10 and , at one time had over 1000. Baker shotguns were my main interest, so the engravers of the same were, too. Probably in the 70s, we had a small gun show in Anchorage and on tables next to mine were Sam Welch, the wonderful engraver, and Mike Petrov. I had a few Baker Guns for sale and had found a few Brochures from Rudolph Kornbrath. Sam Welch saw these and we talked. Kornbrath was his engraving Hero. Mike Petrov , too, had knowledge of Kornbrath from his interest in the custom rifles, I suspect. We talked and the conversations validated my thought that Kornbrath was of some high value. Over the years , I too, did research on these engravers and makers, surely not a persistent as Mr. Petrov, though. Just kept my eyes and ears open for stuff of interest and viewed hundreds of auction catalogs. Also developed a "trapline" of friends with the same interests. Finally there is some information coming forward . The internet is a huge step forward, too. A case in point the wonderful French catalogs on line discovered by JayCee [I think} I know there are guys out there who have seriously good gun stuff to share---the trick is how to attract them. Hopefully we will.

One time I figured that some in depth Kornbrath research was needed to try to get a better understanding of the man and his work. I was telling my good friend here in Anchorage about my lack of progress when he asked if I had talked to Kornbrath's grandson. Grandson? what grandson? John said "he lives here in Anchorage and I was just in a meeting with him". Yep, there he was right in the phone book, who would have thought. After several phone calls and meetings I was able to get some copies of what little paperwork they had plus some pictures and background information from the family.

They told me that no family member had any Kornbrath engraving and he, the grandson, had never seen any. One Sunday I put a Kornbrath engraved rifle in the car and drove over to show them. While we were talking I ask about a double barrel shotgun that I was trying to find that Kornbrath had given his son, this fellows father, for his birthday as a teenager. Tom Shelhamer the stockmaker had traded work with Kornbrath by stocking this shotgun for the son and in return Kornbrath had engraved a Winchester 52 for Tom. So the grandson goes and comes back with a Leg-o-Mutton guncase and I dump out the most complete coverage Kornbrath gun I have ever seen. It was a no-name (guild) Austrian double that was Kornbrath's journeyman's piece.

Picture from Adolph catalog, more to follow.

The wood is very dry and just soaks up any oil I put on it, it will be awhile before it looks right. The rifle shows little to no use.

And the story continues. Next.

Michael,
Is that what Santa brung you? You must've been very good.

Brent

Brent, Not sure good had anything to do with it ;-). I'm still amazed that a rifle almost a hunderd years old is in this kind of shape. The bore is as mint as the day it left Rock-Island. I have for a long time tried to locate one of the early Adolph Springfields with the carving & checkering on the side. I'm still in shock over getting both the Adolph packet of papers and the rifle within a week of each other.

This is a little Adolph Kurz (short) Mauser.

Mike, that's wonderful. The newish Springfield and , of course, the little rifle.

I was thinking that we sometimes "assume" but are not totally sure that one engraver did a piece of work. It would make an interesting post to show engraving that we can document came from a certain engraver. What do you all think ? That way we might have samples to compare to engraving we are not positive about.

I would like to second Daryl. I recall Joe Bayer, an engraver who still works part time for G&H and who worked with Joe Fugger, telling me that you could recognize when Fugger worked on a particular G&H rifle by the shape of the ampersand in the G&H name on the barrel. It might be a good idea to make a photographic record of these observations for future reference.

Hi Bob,
I used to hunt with Joe Bayer at Ozzies farm in Belle Mead NJ as a boy. I remember eating dinner at Joes house when he brought out a couple of guns he had engraved and was floored by the artistry. I did not know Joe was a skilled engraver even though we had hunted together for many years. We stopped hunting Ozzies farm in the mid 80's as
Ozzie sold off much of his land, but we had many great times in triple A's club house and in the field in Belle Mead and at Gobblers knob in Griggstown.
I do stop in from time to time and say hello if Joe is at G & H.
Jeff G.

Well Michael, it looks like Santa was very nice to you, this year! Beautiful!

Jeff

I think Daryl has a good Idea and we should do a new thread about engravers. If someone will start it I'll pull a Kornbrath flier, scan and post it.

Come on folks I know there are more Adolph shotguns out there, post some pictures ;-).

Both of these from Adolph rifles.

Michael, what's the chambering on the Adolph Kurz Mauser? 250-3000?

Rob

Rob, It's marked "Adolph Mauser Cal. 25" but in reality it's a 6.5x54K an original Mauser chambering. I suspect he also sold the same cartridges as .25 Adolph.

Thanks Michael, didn't I read somewhere that many of the Kurz Mausers were chambered for 250-3000? Have always hoped to find one.

BTW I'm away from home this Christmas and at the last minute I wanted to bring a small book to read, I grabbed your CUSTOM GUNMAKERS, thanks for the enjoyment.

Merry Christmas,

Rob

Many of the Kurz Mausers were chambered for the .250-3000 by both Mauser and custom gunmakers. If I remember correctly this rifle was made before the .250-3000. I'll have to put that on my to-do list, anyone know what year it was introduced?

From Chuck Hawks website....

"The .250 Savage was introduced by Savage in 1915. The cartridge was designed for Savage by Charles Newton. The .250 is a compact and economical cartridge whose modern appearance belies its age.

As originally factory loaded, the .250 Savage drove an 87 grain spitzer bullet to 3000 fps. This is why it was also known as the .250-3000. It was the first standard US cartridge to achieve that muzzle velocity."

I'll confirm it when I get home.

Rob

The Adolph Mauser action was made 1912 according to the Mauser serial number. So made before the .250-3000 introduction. I'd like to find an ad for his so called .25 Adolph but so far no luck.

Mike, what kind of oil are you putting on the Adolph Springfield ?

Don't want to start another war but RAW linseed oil. Very little oil was used on it when made. This rifle is typical of rifles made with good europen walnut of this period. Like many rifles from this time frame they have bare wood inletting as well. I rub in few drops of oil with my hand then wipe off with a clean rag and let sit for a couple days and redo.

More on Adolph:










I love the double rifle. Any idea of his total production numbers by type of gun?

Alex,

Good catch, I've not looked at that book in years. I have never tried to figure out how many Adolph guns both rifle and shotgun are out there. The floor plate on the right is from Townsend Whelen's Adolph Springfield, it's in the NRA Museum.

That was fun, we need to try more like this in the future, thanks for all the participation. Maybe a thread about custom rifle makers who made shotguns.

Mike, I agree. Would love to hear more about Custom Rifle Makers and their shotguns, too. Are you revising your book ? Seems it was talked about some time ago, and I haven't heard .

I know this is a very old post. And the great Mr. Michael Petrov has since passed. Would like to see if any of the original posters to this thread may have any knowledge or insights. I am trying to identify what i believe is a possible custom Adolph rifle. This gun has been handed down in the family. It originates from the Adirondack NY area. Family story is said that this rifle was a custom prize that was one in a shooting competition (Fair). This is a bolt action Mauser rifle. The bolt has engraved what i believe is the mauser serial number 4517. On the barrel it is also stamped "Germany". Also engraved on the top of barrel it reads " The Adolph Mauser 250 / 3000 Savage". I believe this rifle is a custom rifle fitted with a bolt action mauser chambered in a 250 / 3000 Savage. The rifle has the classic stock Adolph carvings. The barrel and double trigger area has classic engravings as well (animals). The rifle was also outfitted with a scope. Curious if anybody can identify this rifle s/n or possible history behind it?

The rifle section might be a good place to start.

Just saying