[RJay]

After WWI these guns were imported by the 10s of thousands if not the hundreds of thousands. They sold for only a few dollars but hey, they looked just like a Colt or Browning so they must be good. Unfortunately, while the established makers used steel that was the equal of any used in Europe, this was not true for the majority of the cottage industry. Most of the Eibar guns were make from very soft steel and even " Cast steel " which is little better than cast iron. As a result the Spanish Eibar small arms earned a well.deserved bad reputation. There were exceptions such as the Star, Astra and Llamas, but they were painted with the same brush. Most of the makers never survived { literally ) the civil war so the exportation of these cheap Spanish Eibar " Ruby " guns ended by 1940. These guns are very common and your grandfather could have picked it up any where, they were sold mail order and even in feed stores gas stations.