I dislike stamping my barrels so they're not marked as to caliber. I really would like to be able to engrave the caliber on them and have been reading about the New Hermes Engravograph.

Does anyone here use one and have any advise or information they can share? I see various models for sale starting at ~ $150.00 for used ones.

Or am I wasting my time? 

I know I can get them done at a trophy shop but don't like the idea of leaving a target barrel with them.

Besides, it sounds like a good excuse to buy another piece of equipment.

JerryH

   Buy a book and some gravers and learn to cut a "copper-plate" alphabet.   Not all that hard.

CHRIS
RGChristensen

On a related subject, does anyone know of high quality stamps for sale?  I have a set I got from Brownells but some of the numbers and letters are of different sizes.  I've looked but can't find anything better.

JS

Got me to thinking.  I've never stamped any of my barrels either.

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Are they really that cheap?  Maybe I need one, too.

Years ago I looked at them, I thought it might be a good addition to the shop.  Off hand, I believe I was less than impressed; more like trophy shop engraving; which, in my personal opinion, I don’t believe trophy shop type engraving belongs on a gun. In addition to the engraver, you also need to find to fonts, collets, cutters etc., the accessories can often exceed the cost of the machine. . 
Years ago, I became good friends with Ray Phillips (owner of NGraver Co.), he taught me a lot about engraving machines. If you want good results, you need to start looking at Deckels. Not cheap, but they can be found on the secondary market for a fraction of the original cost.  Think $2000 vs. $20,000. 
For a one of, hand engraving is the way to go, a good engraver wouldn’t charge too much for such a small job, thing $3-$5 a letter, shipping might be the largest cost factor. 
Not sure why you dislike stamping, when done properly it looks excellent.  I have custom stamps made to match the original factory markings; once stamped, polished and rust blued, it’s impossible to tell from an original factory marking. 

JS
For quality stamps, I have them custom made, that way I get the exact size and font that I need. Price wise, it a bit more pricy than standard hardware grade stamps, but, they are exact. 

JS47 wrote on Oct 14^th, 2015 at 11:07pm:

Look up Pryor Steel Type, they are made in England. The set I have is 1/16" character height. You set them like type in a holder. They will all be aligned. It takes some practice to get a nice strike so depth is even on all 4 corners. Also helps to use an aluminum or lead hammer to avoid a "double strike". But once you get the hang of it, you will never go back to stamping each character individually.

It's just that I'm never satisfied with how it looks when I'm done.  Never looks as neat as factory rollstamps.

Jeff_Schultz wrote on Oct 15^th, 2015 at 6:43pm:


The only thing you need to worry about is doing something like stamping a 7 x 57 barrel 7 x 75.

JS