doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com looking for engraver

There's a guy here in iowa who's definitely on the rise. I've had a few simple things done by him. And maybe he's getting to the point where he's ready for something more challenging.

I have taken a vow of silence on this subject, at the behest of my engraver.

There might be “plenty”, but, the trouble I’ve noticed is damn few of the plenty can engrave at a level that I want to buy. I have never seen an example of gamescene engraving that surpassed what Winston Churchill was capable of. Never. Geoffroy could look at engraving that was done 100 years ago, pull a couple of paper rubbings off of it, study them and be laying down an exact duplicate of that style to a screw that was munged or some other repair. He had his own style, as well, that was very, very good.

That guy isn’t on every street corner.

The engraving school in St. Etienne was busy enough to offer night classes, and I attended a single class, along with Jerome, an apprentice at the time, but, a graduate of the gun making school in Liege. All he wanted to do was be able to fill in engraving on repairs, and he was working his ass off to attempt that. This was the guy who eventually invented a single trigger for the Darne gun. There was an assortment of French housewives studying as well, mostly looking for a way to pick up income while working at home. Mr. Pitiot, MOF, but, retired by then, taught the class, and gave me a quick entrance exam, handing me a 2X2 square of flat steel and telling me to cut two straight lines of equal depth, end to end, centered and intersecting in the middle. Everybody took that test, and when I finished and showed it to him, he wasn’t impressed. Not sure I’d have been invited back to study with him.
There were plenty of people in the class, but, I didn’t see anything that night that struck me as art. It was going to be years before anybody did that, and not all of them were going to be able to do it, no matter how hard they tried.

If it was easy, it wouldn’t be so expensive.

Best,
Ted

What engraving level are you wanting to buy, Ted? No offense…but you couldn’t afford Winston Churchill. I couldn’t either. Not many could. No sense in dreaming about what Winston could’ve done for you. Wasn’t happening anyway. Being an art enthusiast myself…I probably have different opinions on what level various engravers might be at. What is best quality to some people is pure junk to someone else’s eyes. I personally think that Winston Churchill’s stuff was very nice but somewhat overrated….especially when compared to what comes out of the shops of Pedersoli, Giovanelli, Pedretti, Torcoli, etc. Anyone who thinks that Italians just do bulino game scenes and animals are embarrassingly ignorant. These guys are Maestro’s. They can do it all at levels that are mind boggling. They are the very best the world has produced. It doesn’t even come close. Even some current Americans have surpassed the artistic ability and capabilities of Winston. Many of these American engravers have studied under some of these Maestros.
In regards to price….expensive engraving is arguably a “recent” development. I’ve study some cash books from various London and Birmingham gunmakers, it’s unbelievable how cheap (cost) good engraving was. Especially when you compare the price of the finished gun to what the engraver was charging for best quality work. The prices charged for top quality engraving was minuscule in comparison. It was also eye opening to see how fast the very best engravers would turnaround the work…sometimes done in as little as a few days!!!! A lot of engravers, even the very best died destitute. Obviously, times have changed. Some engravers these days start at 3k plus to do a watch case. Yea, expensive. Good for them.
There’s quite a few engravers in the U.S. that are top shelf artist and extremely capable.
Theres good ones out there. One of finest artist/engravers in the U.S. lives about 20 miles from me. I’ve taken classes at his home. I have a feeling people are being a bit tight lipped about who they use these days. I know I am. Once the names of talented and competent folks get out there in the public….funny how wait times and prices start going up!!

Mr. Brian would do well and take SamW’s advice. There’s a bunch of very very capable engravers on the FEGA page.
http://www.fega.com/MemberWebPages/MasterPage1.asp

I don’t know any Italian engravers working in the US. Closest I got was a Frenchman. Bet I talked with him once a week for a year when he took over importing Darne guns. But, it seems different now, you look at a webpage for engravers, and, there was a time I knew a few that were top notch, and there isn’t anybody I can think of, now. You could find a guy, right here, a good guy.

You are right, I wasn’t going to buy any of Winston’s work. But, that doesn’t mean I was going to have flying turnips engraved by grandma Moses on a gun, either.

I have a little patch of engraving I bought from Geoffroy. It was his idea, and I did it. Glad I did, but, I sure didn’t realize it was going to be the only chance I ever got to do that.

Good luck finding an engraver, Brian.

Best,
Ted

Some engravers are better at engraving certain things than they are at engraving other things. It is good if you determine what an engraver is good at engraving, especially if you are commissioning a young engraver. There are a lot of very good young engravers practicing the trade in the US today hungry for commission work. If you do your homework, you can find affordable engravers that are exceptionally talented worthy of your commission.

Very good young engravers hungry for work. And the list? Homework? That's why these posters are here.

This lady is a FEGA Master Engraver, and her work looks impressive. I’ve not worked with her, but I’ve considered contacting her because she’s not too far from me.

https://www.melissamstudios.com/

Sam.
Thanks. Thats a great idea.

SamW has given the reasonable suggestion for obtaining a list. The homework is going through that list and deciding who the OP determines will best be able to do the work he wants done.