I would like to start a new thread about the elusive S-man.
I have a fairly long list of makers that I recognize their work but have never learned their name.
Each time a new one shows up I get a little more motivated and frustrated.
I've sent word far and wide and took a tally and it's now up to nine (9) rifles by S-Man. That is a lot of rifles for an unknown maker in anybody's book.
Many have shown up through a dealer so the trail is dead cold. My hope is that just one will show up with a history that I can confirm.
I'm going to post one picture of each rifle I have info with the exception of No. 8 & 9.
A couple of these rifles are owned by members here, I'll leave it up to them if they would like to say anything.
4, 6, 7 & 9 are engraved by R.J. Kornbrath.
The main reason for this post it to attract more rifles by this maker with the hope we can learn who he is.
What is it about the third one that makes it an S-man rifle? I'm curious what the key features are and I see the carving similarities and the grip end similarities, but none of that exists on the third one.
What's the other cues?
Number three has a lot of things that are not visible in the picture such as a very unique reshaping of the tang. The comb treatment is the same and the layout of the checkering are the same.
Also the owner has two other of the s-man rifles to compare it to ;-).
Do you think these could have been stocked in Europe? Or do you think perhaps he trained in Europe?
It almost looks like more than one hand at work. Rifles 5, 6, and 7 do not represent equivalent levels of workmanship. 5 looks almost like hobbyist work, while 7 is extremely refined. Just my gestalt.
"Do you think these could have been stocked in Europe?"
The short answer is no. The long answer is look at the wood and tell me what it is?
Well there were several hands doing the photography work.
Hi all:
In my eye,these guns have a very large amount of quiet sophistication! They speak volumes of what one may refer to as class. I can not define it but it is the same feeling one gets when one sees a classy lady. One just knows it when it is seen.
Does anybody else see the basic beauty of these guns. To me they speak of endless attraction to a very simple style!
Sincerely,
Franchi
Under some of those oxidized finishes it's difficult for me to tell, but some of them do look like black walnut.
He obviously had multiple dealings with Kornbrath - does Kornbrath have records of who he engraved for? If he did, would it be possible to get a date range from the serial numbers and cross reference it to at least narrow down your list of names?
I still opine that he might have been German trained.
The only Kornbrath reference stuff I have is a copy of his addresses of customers. It's not dated or anything just pages of names and addresses. It might help once I have a name but to date just more questions than answers.
I just got off the phone with the new owner of the one just sold at auction. When he gets the rifle he will pull it apart, remove the buttplate and look for any clues.
While doing some filing today, cleaning up stacks of correspondence I ran across an old inquire about what I'm sure is an "S" Man rifle.
In the barrel channel is the word "WIBEHER" written in pencil I don't know if could be the owner or the maker. The problem is Wibeher is not a word or a least not a common surname.
If it's not Wibeher what do you think it could be?
I can't find any reference to Beher as a US family name, seems to only show up in Austria. (Hmmm...he said...)
That's a good thought and I've been looking into Beher and Keher.
Since I received that mail the rifle has changed owners. I'm trying to locate the new owner for a second opinion or picture of the signature.
The rifle was observed in Tulsa and I'm told that the spelling is WIBENER.
I can very few f9olks with this name and no gunsmiths.
The picture isn't very clear, but No.4 looks a lot like my Milhoan rifle. There is a distinctive ridge visible on the right side that functions like a Wundhammer swell; I've never seen this from another maker.
I own a Milhoan rifle as well, I would love to see pictures of yours.
Go to the "Robert U. Milhoan, Gunsmith" thread by xausa in this forum. That's my rifle now.
