Erl Svendsen

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Saint

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Forum members, at a gun show today, I picked up a 22 revolver called "The Pony Express." It is in its original box. The gun was some custom revolver that was made by Mr. Svendesen quite a few years ago. There is a write-up about him and the gun that came with the box by John Dougan.
The gun appears to be a based on a Ruger single six (3-screw) with the coil spring system. The cylinder looks like it is a Ruger one. The grip-strap is one-piece made out of cast brass and the frame is like Ruger's except it is case hardened/colored.
The write-up indicates the man made a few hundred guns and some were even in 38 special.
I am looking for input/comments.
 
In reading over my post, I see I spelled the mans name two different ways. I believe the correct spelling is
Svendsen.
 
After posting, I found this on the internet:


November 11, 2006, 06:09 PM
I was at a gun show today in Iowa and a man there had on display, not for sale, revolvers and derringers made by an Erl Svendsen. I actually thought one gun box spelled it Svensen but the internet finds it as Svendsen. Anyway, I told the man I would do some searching because I like to do research. He had skimpy information that E. S. lived in Chicago area and made guns in the 1960s and maybe to 1970s. This man at the show had said he found 3 addresses somehow that ES had used in Illinois and he had met some man who had purported to know ES and knew that he had refused to pay off the mob or something so left Chicago. Then I found through a browser search an entry by Harley Nolden on the FIRINGLINE website from in the past because he had been asked about a derringer made by this ES or something. Harley had found a man who claimed he had known ES in the Chicago area on Rte 53 doing with a business named Hunter's Haven, I guess in the Chicago area. Apparently ES named his company eventually ESFAC, Inc. and they did make some derringers. I did also find an entry from Guns America that someone had one of these derringers for sale at some point in time for $130 but when I went to GA with the item number it was out of date and sold. Same thing with Gun Broker. So, who out there knows more about Erl Svendsen, gunmaker. I will tell you that his man today had a .22 SAA type revolver with a gorgeous condition cardboard box in which it came. The revolver was called a Pony Express I believe. The address for the company had no zip code and was dated 1957 apparently. (Zip code mentioned here as a way of dating things. Zip codes not used until about 1962-63.) Also, had two or three other revolvers with no boxes but I did not ask the caliber and I think a display box of like a set of three derringers. So, WHO KNOWS MORE??? This man is really wanting to know more and said he had Googled ES and found nothing. Obviously, he did something wrong as I found out something. If you know of any articles in Gun Digest or other periodicals or if you have a firearm made by ES or know any little tiny thing please post it.
 
Snake45; I am 'dead tired' from a hard day at the gun show and tomorrow will probably be worse. I will photograph my 'Pony Express' and post pictures by Monday, I hope.
I suspect Ruger put Erl out of business for patent infringement.
What I like most about the gun I purchase is it has the case hardened/colored frame. I was told by a master gunsmith that he had tried to case harden/color an early Ruger, but it did not work because of the heat treatment or the alloy that was used.
I think some modern Rugers may be case colored??
 
That is a pretty little gun. Great pictures.

Good luck in your search for answers. Now if anybody does a search for Erl Svensdesen this thread will pop up. Maybe more answers and pictures will arive. IF you can edit the title of the thread to have all of the spelling variations of Svendesen, it might help. Ed
 
eveled: Thanks for the advice. I have changed the spelling of Svendsen to the way it appears on the revolver barrel.
Note the different trigger configuration. I suspect Erl was 'pushing the envelop' on patent infringement. With mechanical devices, like guns, many older, out of date patents (> 17 years old) get added into newer gun designs and the USPO examiners decide if the improvements that one adds merit the issuing of new patents. These new patents are usually simply on specific components such as in the coil spring (as one example) in the Single-six. I don't see any significant improvements in the Svendsen gun, so I doubt if he had anything more than some Patents Pending when he started his venture.
 
BTW: The box has "Copyright 1957" on it. Copyrights can run on forever like on music. Patents only run for 17 years. His copyright could not be on the gun, but is most likely on the name of the gun or even on the design of the "Pony Express Rider" on the box.
 
I'm sure the copywrite just refers to his trademark and intellectual property.

I've got one and have made a study of them over the last couple years. Erl made about 320 of them over 1956 - 1960. They are exceedingly rare. Erl may very well have been in violation of Ruger's patent on things like the detent cam hammer. Hard to say whether that made him quit making them or not. He had a shop of two, and it would be tough to make that product viable with two guys. They are basically hand built. Quite a few of them have very nice stags. No Pony Express is quite like another.

Yours is CCH. There are only a couple known to be CCH.

erl101.jpg
 
As to the design being copied from Bill Ruger's three screw…..

Mine had a broken bolt. Now, its not identical to the cylinder latch from a 3 screw Single Six. But I did fix this Pony Express using a hammer and cylinder latch from a 3 screw Single Six. Timing had to be tweaked with those parts, but it works, and pretty darn well at that.
 
sack peterson: Great information!! I am surprised about there being so few case colored/hardened receivers. That was what attracted me to my gun. I did not notice until your comment on this matter that the one pictured in John Dougan's article appears to be a plum-blue. Your Buntline version is a beauty.
 
Very nice, very pretty gun! Interesting to see a trigger that curved on a SA revolver.
 
The "Pony Express" box is really well constructed. It reminds me of some of the old S&W boxes. It looks like it was built to last a couple hundred years. I wish Ruger had constructed their boxes half as well. They seem to deteriorate sitting on a shelf.
 
sack peterson: See next input concerning the trouble you had in repairing your Svendsen
 
Saint said:
As to the design being copied from Bill Ruger's three screw…..

Mine had a broken bolt. Now, its not identical to the cylinder latch from a 3 screw Single Six. But I did fix this Pony Express using a hammer and cylinder latch from a 3 screw Single Six. Timing had to be tweaked with those parts, but it works, and pretty darn well at that.
Click to expand...
Saint said:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

sack peterson: Whenever I have to replace a broken bolt (aka cylinder latch) in a Colt, it usually takes quite an effort to get a new bolt to engage and release like the old one. I generally have to do some grinding on the leg of the bolt that engages the cam on the hammer. I do not have as much experience with Rugers, but it sounds like your effort to repair the Svendsen Pony Express involved a lot more effort/mods. Did you actually have to use a Ruger hammer and bolt to get it to function properly?
Click to expand...
 
I did. Erl's gun has a detent cam, like the 3 screw, but it's slightly different. Perhaps not different enough to avoid patent infringement. And also, neither the Erl detent cam or the Erl cylinder latch are as robust as the Ruger parts. But you get in there, and you can definitely see the similarities despite the differences. There really was not a way for me to recreate the Erl cylinder latch. Too flimsy, and made of spring steel, but not quite like a Colt or a Ruger. So knowing the infringement story, I threw a 3 screw cylinder latch in and lo and behold it fit like it was made to be there. Because of the way it actuates off the Ruger cam, using the Ruger cylinder latch made it a necessity to use the Ruger hammer. And as it also fit perfect, this reveals a further curiousity in that the Pony Express cylinder and frame dimensions are identical. Hammer went in, engaged to trigger just fine. Cylinder latch went in, engaged to notches just fine. I had to play with a hand (pawl) because they are different lengths as a result of the pin holes on the hammers being in slightly different spots. I guess lastly, you look at that coil main spring and it's obvious that Erl took most his design from the 3 screw Single Six, before adding some flourishes of his own.
 
sack peterson: That is a great explanation! I will know exactly how to proceed of I ever have to make a repair on my
revolver. The first thing I noticed about the Erl gun was that the cylinder looked like it was from a Ruger Single-six and not a Colt.
For the Ruger hammer to fit so well must have been pleasing to you. To top that off, having the bolt/cylinder latch line up with the slot must have been doubly pleasing.
I think you have pioneered any issues I might have. Thanks again!!
 
That's a great looking revolver. I like the colored frame, the brass grip, and especially the stag panels. Neat artwork on the box, too.

Other than the trigger's shape and the screws going through from the left side, it looks very similar to a Single Six. (Oh, and the cowboy style sights, which Ruger later used on the "Vaquerito" Single Sixes, but had not done as of the time yours was made.)

Unless you paid a fortune for it, I'd say good find!
 
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