Hi,

I'm new to the forum. I live in Minnesota, USA. I own two doubles; a 20ga Grulla I've had for about ten years and a H&K Fabarm Classic Lion Grade II I just bought. I occasionally hunt grouse.

Burning question: Does anybody know if the engraving on the Lion Grade II is done by hand? If it is, I would say it looks like bulino engraving with four intials.

Welcome to the forums! I can't help with the rest of your question

Hi Iwanna,

Welcome to the forum!

I wasn't familiar with your gun so I had to look it up. Judging from the MSRP I was 99.9% certain it was not hand engraved. (typically, hand engraved guns start at $4000+ new for the Spanish varieties, for example)

Then I found this on a features list for your gun:

"removable side plates are etched with aesthetic engravings of game scenes (Grade II model) "

The key word being "etched", which is not "engraved" by the literal use of the terms. If it was hand engraved they definitely would not use the term "etched" because of a negative (machine done) connotation.

Never seena Fabarm with anything but mechanical "enraving".

Etching does not necessarily have a "machine-made" connotation. In traditional etching as done in artworks (Would you like to come upstairs and see my etchings?) the design (picture or pattern) is cu through a wax or resist using an etching needle and the item dunked in acid which eats away at the metal where the needle has pierced thru the resist. Both Rembrandt and the American artist Whistler were etchers.

There is a qualitative difference in the appearance of an etched vs an engraved line which in artwork make it relatively easy to distinguish between the two.

Another method of etching is used to make printed circuit boards. An etch resistant ink is applied using a silk screen. The board is then dipped in ferric chloride which removes any thing that is not protected.

Also many makers today use laser engraving which they some times refer to as etched.

Etched engraving of guns has a very long history.

Pete

Welcome to the forum Iwana. Browning Arms Co also utilized an acid etching process on some of their superposed models, specifically on some of their Presentation grades and more so on the lower grades such as the P-1. This was done in an effort to save money as acid etching was cheaper than hand engraving. Some models were partially etched and hand engraved

Wow. Etched is sounding pretty good to me right now. I'll attach pix as soon as I figure out how.

I sure wish I could see the rest of that description. Info on these is real scarce.