Why a normal engraving ball vise doesn't work for the engravers at the Merkel factory.
The engravers from the Thuringian Forest area have a very unique way of rotating their vise. Zella-Mehlis and Suhl are the two famous gunmaking towns from the region. The town of Zella-Mehlis is the site of the original Walther Arms, Krieghoff and J.G.Anschutz gun factories. They remained there until just before the Russians occupied the area in in 1945, The Sauer factory in Suhl remained and was a principal arms maker of hunting and target guns for the Soviet bloc. The engravers in this region use an offset rotating vise to turn their work when cutting scrolls which is unique in the engraving world. Noted American author Roger Bleile gets some tips from the engravers in the Merkel factory.
