Tag Archives: gun engraving

Revolver Taco Lounge

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You often see crazy ornate guns coming out of Mexico, sadly those often displayed are M1911 .38 Supers and AKMs owned by narcotraffickers.

A notable example of a commercial Colt 1911 Aztec Jaguar .38 Super Serial #29 of 300. This one sold for $3,424.99

However, there are many no doubt owned by regular citizens who bend over backward to slice through federal red tape to be able to legally possess firearms. And when you consider you can typically only own one or two guns in your life, the odds you may get them customized are pretty high.

Many Mexican-Americans continue that tradition here in the U.S.

With that, Vice (don’t groan, it is a good short doc) visits with 77-year-old Arturo Rojas Castelan, son of a blacksmith, who balances his time engraving guns and working as a dishwasher at his family’s Mexican restaurant, Revolver Taco Lounge, on Main Street in Dallas’s trendy Deep Ellum district, where he works the afternoon shift.

A conversation with Mr. Parker

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Larry A Parker, 74, of Belmont, Ohio, has had a career in the firearms industry that has taken a lifetime but has produced treasures that will endure through the ages.

I  bumped into Parker at the 146th National Rifle Association Annual Meetings and Exhibits at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta and asked him about his work, that of a master engraver. The career path, with ties to the old world gunsmithing artisans of yesteryear, is not your typical one.

“I started building rifles in 1958. I actually started working on guns in shop class when I was in high school — I don’t think you can do that today,” he said.

Parker, the son of a carpenter, built 16 muzzle loading rifles, both flintlock, and percussion in his youth, all from scratch using curly maple stocks.

“Back then there wasn’t any kits available. You got you a plank of wood and you carved one out.”

And what he has created since then, with decades of study behind him, is amazing.

More in my column at Guns.com