How Many Years Have You Been Engraving?

[Russ Sutton]

I've been learning to engrave about a 1 1/2 years. I wish I had known about it earlier in life. Russ

 

[donnatheeng]

how long have you been engraving

[i started when i was 20 years old.i worked for a jewelry store as little bit of everything.the old engraver,in his 50's,that i took jobs to offered to teach me .i would work 5 days aweek make 1.65 an hour ,have steak and champagne lunch once a week and cocktail hour at 5:00.needless to say,what 20 year old in 1969 would turn that down.i sure didn't .he stroked out at 58 and i am still around. donna the engraver

 

[loyd freeman]

Istarted this hobby four years ago on a dare and have had a ball ever since. I am not surprised at the help that all engravers seem to give. I for one really appreciate the help.My new hobby has grown to new highs in the last four years. Thanks to all concerned. Loyd

 

[Barry Lee Hands]

I was first employed as an engraver in 1977, but I had fooled around with it a little before that. My mother was an Art history and jewelry instructor for the University of California at Davis, and I can't actually remember when I first held a graver.
Thats me in the Jefferson Starship T shirt and the ponytail on the left in '77 with Ethan Jacczak at Gist engravers in Vacaville cali.
As I recall, I was not shaving yet.

And here is a pic of Ethan and I in my old studio at woods bay twenty years later.

 

[Martin Strolz]

This picture was taken back in 1972 when I started studying engraving in the HTL Steyr. I was fourteen years old. We had simple cast iron balls filled with plaster and a soft black type of cement to hold the practice plates. The vice you can see in the lower left corner didn’t had a rotating top as it was used for making steel stamps and punches only.

 

[sam]

Great pics!

Barry: Do you know anything about Gist's process for reproducing engraved western buckles? I'm not sure what they do, but they can reproduce hand engraving that's difficult if not impossible to tell from the real thing.

 

[Barry Lee Hands]

Sam,
I know what there is to know that you can learn on a two day tour. Gist invited me down there just after the Reno show, and they really have some amazing ways of doing things. Of course, it is proprietary stuff and I cant reveal what exactly I was shown.
I can tell you that I have never seen anyplace, even in Brescia, that can do what they do.
Here is a pic of Gary Gist and I at Reno.

 

[ron p. nott]

i started engraving in 1970 i made a chisel from a old file and used an bald peen hammer and started cutting then in 1980 i was fortunate to get to know Marty rabeno and my engraving skill have been nothing but up hill from there , Marty has given me a lot of guidance .. and Marty i still am practicing .. ron p.

 

[Peter E]

Ron,
I've seen drastic improvement in your engraving since I had seen you at an NCCA show several years back.

That "bald peen hammer" did right by you obviously.

Peter

 

[fegarex]

Barry,
Are you shaving yet???

Sorry, couldn't help myself. At least YOU have the hair yet. Wish I could say that.

 

[Barry Lee Hands]

Rex, still not shaving, at least in spots.
I found something that John Rohner sent me. John Hands, a fourth generation watchmaker,was my great great grandfather. "Babe" Hands was my great uncle. Including my mother, who taught jewelry, I am the seventh generation of my family in the jewelry/watchmaking/engraving trades.

 

[fegarex]

Pretty cool Barry.
Have you ever contacted them to see if they had any other photos? I can only say that I'm a third generation gunsmith/engraver but I do have some nice photos from the archives. I just hope my son doesn't sell them at a yardsale when I die.

 

[Barry Lee Hands]

I have not contacted them. I do have Family pics of John Hands, but this is all I have on Hands Jewelers. John Hands came from Birmingham, so who knows, maybe he worked on some guns.
You should donate those pics you have to the guild, at least some scanned files.

 

[sam]

Very cool, Barry. No family jewelry or engraving background here....my grandfather (and father) played music in the 'speakeasys' in Detroit!

 

[fegarex]

Oh, come on Sam.. With a name like Alfano and living in Detroit, they only TOLD you they had instruments in those violin cases!!!!

Before getting into the gunsmithing my grandfather made musical instruments and band equipment in Chicago. The "music gene" missed me totally. I envy you music makers.

 

[Barry Lee Hands]

Sam, I think you do ok at music AND engraving... I think there may be a music/art combo gene, hehe.

 

[SamW]

I see by the clock it has been just over 40 years since my neighbor Ray Viramontez introduced me to the art of gun engraving and Prudhomme's book Gun Engraving Review. I've been studying gun engraving ever since starting with hammer and chisel, going pneumatic in '74, FFL in '78 to take in work, and full time in '85. Boy, did engraving ever change my life...and much for the better!!! S

 

[JJ Roberts]

Found some old photographs today that I thought I would share with you..early 70's..I built this vise from a
machinist vise I bought at a flea mkt. for $5.00...bowling ball $1.00..brackets, lead mollies and bolts..$4.00..I lugged this silly looking thing from one gunshow to another up and down the east coast. It just goes to show that you don't need a lot of fancy equipment to engrave...just a lot of determination.

Yours truly,
JJ Roberts
School of Artistic Engraving
Manassas, VA
www.angelfire.com/va2/engraver

 

[monk]

if you ever fire your front stuffer, you'll never go back to the bench. blackpowder shooting is far more addictive than engraving. at least people will pay for the engraving.