I don’t think it is a huge number of guns that had the engraved Darne, rather than the die punch, that actually displaced metal in an oval on the opening key. But, they are out there.
First year or two of production after Paul Bruchet bought the company, he didn’t have permission to use the Darne name. The guns had the name “Bruchet” engraved on the lever. I think the family that owned the name, may have wanted money, or fees on each gun. Paul never intended to have a production shop, and knew his guns were going to be superior to the factory produced guns. The family eventually decided to just let him use the name, as they saw he was building the best sliding breech guns that had ever been built.
He happily put the Cincinnati press back in use.
Best,
Ted
