Thread: Torpille
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Old June 22, 2009, 01:01 PM   #3
James K
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Join Date: March 17, 1999
Posts: 24,383
I have never seen or heard of a "Torpille" pistol, so have no idea if it is the so-called "Ruby" type or not.

In that period, the Spanish made thousands of auto pistols and revolvers for export to the world. Most were poorly made, of low quality materials* and have little value today. Most stores won't take them in trade and few gunsmiths will work on them for liability reasons. The revolvers usually resembled Smith & Wesson revolvers and some were deceptively marked; both revolvers and pistols bore unusual names reminiscent of those used on the "suicide specials" of an earlier time.

I congratulate Golliver on his collection; it must be huge, and something I could never hope to obtain. Mathews shows some 167 7.65 auto pistols but his work is dated (1962) and doesn't include all the Eibar trade names.

*The cheap cast iron used is often called "pot metal" because it was the same material used to make cook pots. Recently some definitions of the term have confused it with zinc or other alloy, but the connection to the common European soup pot is obvious.

Jim
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