Barrel details, unconverted Eibar pistol
Here is the top flat of the breech of the Aguirre pistol, showing the traditional Spanish octagonal-to-round stages with chiseled "wedding band" transition (here detailed with inset gold foil), along with the maker's punzón and the silver-inlaid notation of horseshoe-iron used for the forging of the barrel.
(the use of this amazingly ductile and tough material was pioneered by the almost legendary Spanish smith Nicolás Bis about a century earlier and made Spanish barrels the envy of gunsmiths and a "must-have" among well heeled sportsmen all over Europe during the 18th-19th centuries, gaining a reputation equal to the several generations of Brescia's Cominazzo family, which by then was no longer active in the trade.)
|