The Berettas were proof & function fired by Beretta and were never subjected to any annealing nor (re)hardening at Pedersen for the engraving. They cut just fine as is. As received, they were fully assembled, except for the missing trigger guard and wood. They needed final polishing, especially the forend iron and bottom of the receiver as I recall. But they worked right out of the box, most of the time. Trigger problems were the biggest hangup next to missfires upon reassembly. After finishing up the polishing, the stocks were fitted up and sanded. Then the metal was removed and given a final once over and then given to the engravers. The wood handed to the finishers and then to be checkered. The metal was hot blued, barrels rust blued (mostly!) and the gun reassembled. Sounds simple but they made it into a nightmare at times.
