Sandwiched between the busy thoroughfare and the Mella river is the FAMARS factory, a spacious, well-lit two-story building built by the company a decade ago as its primary gunworks.
This is where A&S guns are made, "lock, stock and barrel." Except for bought-in barrel blanks and engraving, all work is performed in-house. The heavy work begins dowstairs, in the machine shop, at ground level. Although there are CNC machines, most of the equipment is the same conventional milling machines and lathes you'd see in any well-appointed but traditional fine-gun factory.
My guide is Marco Cavazzoni, Cristina Abbiatico's husband. Cavazzoni has been responsible for reorganizing the production flow, in part to cope with the increased orders FAMARS has taken during the past few years. It was also Cavazzoni who pushed for bringing CNC capabilities in-house. FAMARS uses no casting in its guns; actions are machined from a solid forged billet of CR2 steel (18NiCrMo5) and internal components are from GNB 2/TR (39NiCrMo3).
Presently CNC machines are used for fashioning the actions and triggerplate lockwork of the Excalibur as well as making pinless sideplates and components for the Sovereign and Pegasus models. The goal? Producing interchangeable internal components that are machined, then finished to perfect tolerances - not so much as a cost-saving measure but to ensure utter reliability from gun to gun. Even unadorned, the metal finishing on FAMARS guns is incredible. External and internal surfaces are burnished to a mirror finish, and metal tolerances defy written description.
But I learned that it's a mistake to assume FAMARS guns are computer-machined to finished shapes, then merely given a good spit & polish before heading off to the engravers. Cavazzoni handed me a roughed-out action for a Zeus. The slots for the bolts and lockwork had been milled out with traditional machines, but the action itself appeared no different than a British gun you'd see at the same stage of construction. It was unformed - essentially a rectangular hunk of a metal.
"Now this goes to CNC for shaping?" I asked. "No," Cavazzoni replied, "now it goes upstairs." Upstairs is where 13 craftsmen built the guns, using technology of the 19th Century, not the 21st - files and chisels, draw knives and gouges.
Most of the craftsmen face a bench with a view to the mountain that soars behind the factory. Salvinelli's "office" is on the bench at the head of the line of craftsmen. In his vise was a roughed-out Pegasus action. In his hand was a bastard file. He put his elboy into it and began rasping away.
Handwork like this allows for plenty of customizing to shape the actions and fences. A good example is the Zeus. There are toplever and sidelever models, and those with fully rounded shoulders or a SPALLINA - the Dicksonesque shoulder behind the fences. "Within the constraints of each design, anything is possible," Salvinelli said. "The Excalibur aside, 80 percent of the work we do is by hand or with traditional machinery."
Farther down the line I met actioners, ejectormen, jointers, lockmakers, stockers and finishers.
Although the firm is increasingly using CNC machines to make internal components, this hasn't supplanted A&S's traditional gunmaking skills. A pair of Jorema .410s was commissioned with EVERY component in each gun completely intercheangeable with the other. The theme for the commission was appropriately tiled "The Art of Gunmaker." These were built, incidentally, well before A&S began using CNC technology.
Given the ascendancy of Italian gunmakers during the past three decades, it's easy today to take their skills for granted. But best-quality gunmaking in Gardone was rarely passed down from generation to generation. It was in large part learned during the past 35 years - and then taught - the hard way. "When we were beginning, Mario and I had to instill a new ethic of craftsmanship," Salvinelli said, "an ethic where only the best work was acceptable. The Gardone tradition in modern times was mostly mass-producing guns, not making best-quality guns. It was very difficult at first."
Yet these very tribulations have been a real boon for fine-gun aficionados world-wide. Unlike many gunmakers FAMARS was able to approach the task of building fine custom made guns with fresh perspectives, unweighted by the this-is-the-way-it's-always-done prejudices inherent with many longer-established best gunmaking cultures elsewhere. Italian innovators have integrated the best elements from superb existing designs - the Boss over/under serving as a prime example - then developed mechanically superior guns by melding more-efficient production techniques with artisanal craftsmanship of highest order.