Francisco ARIZMENDI
It is about a revolver of the type “Puppy” (Little dog), by contradiction with the revolver of the type “Bull dog”.
It is in calibre 6mm velodog.
The barrel is round and the front sight is not at the end of the barrel. This practice comes owing to the fact that this weapon was intended for export, probably Germany or Austria-Hungary.
Randomly purses of exchange, one meets sometimes revolvers of small gauge equipped with an exaggeratedly long barrel (More than 18 cm), and whose front sight is placed in the middle of the length of this barrel instead of being in end.
Most of the time also, the portion of barrel being beyond the front sight neither is reamed, nor striped.
These weapons are in fact of “unsold goods”. They were in an original manner intended only for export to Austria-Hungary. In order to protect its industry arms manufacturer, they had enacted a law stipulating that a revolver could be accepted with the importation only if its barrel had a minimal length of 18 cm. (Law going back to 1852 and speaking about “7 inches Viennese”, i.e. to not very ready 18 cm).
This length exaggerated, on a weapon of pocket, returned its use and its difficult port.
However, it is that this law was valid only for the customs formalities to the importation, and did not apply any more to the once declared weapons.
In.liaison.with their customers, the arms manufacturers thus turned the difficulty by equipping their weapons with longer barrels but with the front sight placed in the middle of the length.
These weapons were sent “in white” to the German importers, who made them test in Ulm and then sawed the barrel to one cm beyond the front sight, before finishing the weapon.
The same law stipulated that the barrels with one shot couldn’t be mattered that at a rate of one only barrel for two pistols. The problem was solved by producing barrels length double, threaded each side, with each end… a pistol. It was thus enough to saw the tube into two to obtain a pair of identical guns.
Crafty one…
On your gun the stick in nozzle of Corbin is equipped with two plates, out of wood of drowning, finely striped.
The plates are joined together by a through screw and two rivet washers.
The loading is practiced by a right side door, actuated by an internal spring.
The casings are removed by the rod fixed on the axis of barrel. It must be inserted in each chamber to remove the casing which is there.
The trigger is folding to make it possible to put the weapon out of pocket.
Markings:
The various punches on the thunder and the barrel are those of the Spanish proofhouse.
The R in the grenade is the punch of final test for revolvers with Eibar (Spain) between the 14.12.1929 and the 9.7.1931. Only one drawn shot for each chamber, with a load exceeding the normal load from at least 30%. (For the comparison, in Liege one draws 4 shots per room with a double load!!)
The blazon with a cross of St Andre: Proofhouse of Eibar after July 1931
The E spangled: Yearly letter of 1932 meaning that the test was carried out this year *
FA in a logo with a star and a crescent: It is the mark of Francisco ARIZMENDI, Eibar.
It adored the crescent (?) in its trademarks…
Alain
(*) Since the 1927 all Spanish weapons, tested by the official bench of test of Eibar, are marked or engraved, in general on the carcass, by letters which represent the year of manufacture.
Marcel / Roberto / Philippe / Michel / Alain
