BUMP!
I've heard it said that patience is its own reward. Trigger guard restoration now complete. And you guys won't believe my luck in finding this trigger guard. The new (old!) trigger guard is from an original Balkan/Turkish blunderbuss that had a worm-eaten and destroyed stock. The new (old) guard was fitted to the existing mortise. And since the new guard was from the same type of pistol, from the same time period, the patina of the brass is a perfect match. The nails were hand made. I did not try to have the guard engraved similar to the old one as I did not want to risk altering the original patina. Anyway, I thought this restoration turned out very well. You would never know the new guard did not originally come with the gun. Here are some photos with the new (old!) guard. Thanks for looking. Rick.
