Model MF

Model MF - Owners Manual.

This very rare item (the literature not the pistol) was seen on eGun last year.

There follows a couple of (not very successful) attempts to make the English part of the manual more readable. Apart from the last sentence, the English translation is pretty good.

It's interesting that the manual explains the presence of a countersunk hole in the cocking device - it is for attaching it to a post or tree to assist with cocking.

Boxed transitional EG MF 

See this post for details of this unusual pistol:

https://forum.vintageairgunsgallery.com/eisenwerke-gaggenau-eg-air-pistols/model-mf/#post-8275

EG pellet box with MF illustration 

With thanks to WestleyR on the AVA for this pic.

Very strange translation here!

EG MF with chain and ring

With thanks to John Z

Miniature model MF 

Uploaded to You Tube by 'Miniature Models Elinevski'

With thanks to Citizen K for the heads up.

See also:

https://forum.vintageairgunsgallery.com/webley-literature-ephemera/miniature-webley-air-pistols/#post-5784

https://forum.vintageairgunsgallery.com/baikal/miniature-baikal-izh-38-%d0%b8%d0%b6-38/

https://forum.vintageairgunsgallery.com/homemade-non-production-airguns/miniature-air-rifles-and-air-pistols/#post-5788

https://forum.vintageairgunsgallery.com/giffard/miniature-gffard-co2-rifle/#post-5789

Model MF 

With thanks to John A for these pics. With cocking tool, which is also used for stripping the pistol. The small loop handled item is a turnscrew for the adjustable trigger and the other steel item in the box is a spare leaf or plate spring for the trigger mechanism.

Model MF

With thanks to Andy.

EG MF French 'Figaro' model (boxed) 

Pics copyright Waffenhandel im Spessart.

Note: the owner lived in a posh part of Paris, near Notre Dame, on the road where the famous novelist Victor Hugo (Les Miserables, The Hunchback of Notre Dame) grew up:

Model MF (boxed, with EG slugs) 

Transitional model MF 

John Griffiths, author of the Encyclopedia of Spring Air Pistols, says of this pistol:

At first sight it looks like any other Eisenwerke Gaggenau MF pistol, which, although very rare and desirable, are well documented pistols. But it does have something very interesting and different about it (and I don’t mean the cocking aid, which is home-made)...

For me the significance of this find is its relevance to the Dare Devil Dinkum. The MF pistol was originally made in Germany by Eisenwerke Gaggenau, from about 1881 to the early 1900's. It then was made in Belgium for a good few years more, but we know virtually nothing about these later versions, other than that they closely resembled the MF, and that they had the same scrolling above the trigger guard. We don't know reliably who made them in Belgium, or for how long.

Webster's Dare Devil Dinkum, shown below, came along very briefly in the 1920's, and now the scrolling above the trigger guard had disappeared. These were impressed with the name "Webster's Dare Devil Dinkum", and it has been speculated that they could have been specially made for Websters by the mysterious Belgium maker.

This new find shows that the MF pistols slacking the scrolling over the trigger guard were already being sold on the continent without the Webster's markings, when Webster imported a batch stamped for his own sales purposes. So it would not have been a batch exclusively made for Webster.

These pistols, with the plain trigger housing and no Websters markings, are very rare and only three examples are currently on photographic record. Another fine boxed example is illustrated above in this section.

Model MF (with EG pellets) 

Model MF restoration 

With thanks to Matt.

He says:

Another restoration which has been on the to do list for far too long. As with other recent projects, it came to me with poor finish and some original parts missing and broken:

The remnants of the old finish were removed and the worst of the deep pitting filled with silver solder. A new piston rod was turned and screw cut and then everything cleaned back and polished. Once nickel plated and back together it looks much more like it would have done originally.
Although very simple and not very powerful or especially accurate, there is something very elegant about this air pistols.