Who's Who of Engravers Directory , need your help

pilkguns

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NOTE AS of APRIL 2009, this list has been installed online
http://learn2engrave.com/whoswho.html

back to orginal post


Sortof coincidental with Sam’s Historic Engravers Picture posthttp://www.igraver.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1484

I was thinking along a similar line today. I was working on my dictionary of engraving terms for my long,ever evolving engraving book project, and was thinking that there should be a Who’s Who reference list of famous engravers to assimilate for newcomers to our art. What got me thinking about it was the list of the engraver’s of John Rohner’s hammer collection, and the fact that an engraving practioner and former student of mine from several years ago, did’nt recognize the historic significance of many of the names.

So I propose we create a who’s who list. Not one of every Tom, Dick or Sally who ever made metal chips, but of those who have had great impact on the art overall. Historically names like Rembradt and Durer come to mind, and more recently, L.D. Nimschke, Gustav Young, Griebel, E.C Prudhomme, Alvin White, Ray Virmontez, John Rohner. Renown teachers of the art current or past like Jim Small, Neil Hartleip, John Barraclough, George Sherwood, Sam Alfano or Brian Marshall. Inventors and suppliers like Ray Phillips, Don Glaser and Steve Lindsay of course, People who are currently working whose style is greatly admired or copied like Eric Gold, Ron Smith or of course Steve Lindsay. People who greatly promoted the work or authored books like John Amber, or Ken Warner, Tom Turpin, or Roger Bleile . Those who tops in the field today like Ray Cover, Ken Hunt, Sam Alfano or Phillipe Grifnee, or multiple Italian , German and Austrian engravers. Not just gun engraving but tops in other fields historically such as motorcycle or banjo work. This list in this paragraph is not meant to be all inclusive, I could add to any of the categories, these were just some names I am throwing out that quickly come to mind, so that you can help me get a list that IS all inclusive.

Thanks for your help, I look forward to everyone’s list. Please post them here in this thread so other can see the names and not need to duplicate. I will assimilate them in a spread sheet so they can be easily sorted alphabetically and then repost the lists so they can quickly be scanned to see if a name is left off. If it’s a name I don’t recognize, I will contact you for more details about who they are and why they should be included.
 
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Dave London

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Humm
Might want to put that guy whats his name some where in the hills of Tenn, on that list. I thought he was/is a excellent teacher/engraver.;) Dave
 

Sam

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Alain Lovenberg
Firmo Fracassi
Winston Churchill
Giancarlo Pedretti
Stefano Pedretti
Gianfranco Pedersoli
Martin Strolz
Lynton S.M. McKenzie
Josef Fugger
Rudolph Kornbrath
Arnold Griebel
 

pilkguns

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I know I'm missing names. It's late. Who else should be on the list? Send me a PM with your names that should be added.
 
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monk

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engravers list

i can add only 1 i see missing

heide marie hiptmeier
 

deazyner

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I am new to engraving but one engraver's work that I really admire is Chris Meyer. I see that he lives in New Jersey but can't find much about him and have never heard him mentioned in any of these forums. Does anyone on here know him?
 

Brian Hochstrat

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I was thinking how few women there, are that are well known but, Julie Warenski, Lisa Tomlin and Franchesca Fracassi, would be good additions to the list.
 

JT Kinney

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Howard Grant
Ron Lutz, his work is pictured on page 121 of Custom Firearms Engraveing By Tom Turpin
 

JJ Roberts

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Scott..Roy Vail, Ron Nott, John E. Warren...Keep up the good work.

JJ Roberts
Manassas, VA
 

John B.

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Scott, you accedently left out Ken Hunt and the Brown brothers.
Also Barry Lee Hands.

Sorry Scott.....You did have the Brown brothers..... my old brain getting rusty.
ADD:-
Rosa Bee, fantastic scroll, Angelo's sister, Belgium & USA.
Horaco Acevendo of Mexico.
George B Spring.
Gino Cargnel, Belgium & USA.
Bill Mains.
Leonard Francolini.
 
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Brian Marshall

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Couple more "old timers":) J.C. Randell, and Joseph...

There is one that probably no one outside of California & Nevada ever heard of - Francis Harry. He was a huge influence on me.

If you wanna start another list of amazing "Up and Coming" talent, start with Jason Marchiafava (sp?), Brian Hochstrat, Andrew Biggs, and Jaques Herbst. I'm sure there will be more that fit this category... those are just the first ones that came to mind.

Brian Marshall
 

pilkguns

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Okay, here is an update list to examine but first some thoughts on the names. I think at this point the list for American gun and knife engravers is probably 99% complete. I am sure there are American engravers from other disciplines such as Western work, coin carvers, musical instruments or bike engraving that are worthy of addition. For sure there are those gun engravers from other countries who should be added. Ya’ll keep those names coming in.

Yes there are some names not on the list that have been suggested. In my opinion, I did’nt think they met the criteria of making a major impact on the engraving world. Maybe they will have in another 10 years, time will tell. It’s really easy to say who those people are from 50 years back and onward. Time has a woven a distinct record of who is now noteworthy. Some are kindo of iffy from a few years back. Take Frank Lindsay for example. Never to my knowledge a fulltime engraver, yet he did some gun work, good for its day, and that earned him a mention in Prudhomme’s Gun Engraving Review. That alone is not worthy of inclusion in the list and certainly his name is not that well known today as an engraver. But when you mix in his connections with names like Meek, Rohner and McKenzie, and of then of course his son Steve, I think the dots connected are worthy of mention.

It’s even harder with contemporary engravers. Which ones are truly noteworthy versus those who are just worthy engravers? There are some super engravers not on the list. They do great work but in obscurity, either for their amusement alone or for close geographic cliental. Nothing wrong with that, but most people in the engraving world are never going to hear of them or have any reason to know them. One those in this category is Bob Finlay , whom most people have never heard of outside of a 50 mile radius of Emporia, Kansas. He does fantastic deep relief sculpture for his own enjoyment and auctions it off to benefit local charities. Very little outside mention of his engraving work has been made yet he was the inventor of a number of tools made by GRS that we all have on our benches. That gets him included

On the other hand, there are people on the list whose execution I consider not much better than beginning level. But they created a style that was easily recognized and were able to market their work in a manner that they had a large clientele for their efforts. That large client base makes them noteworthy. There are people I don’t like on the list but regardless of my personality conflicts with them, I still recognize and respect the fame that they have in the engraving community. Many factory engravers could be included, but most of them are unknown to us as a whole. Obviously there are some factory engravers, who rose to the top or for whatever reason got more publicity than their fellows and have become household names at the engraver’s dining room table and thus they are included. Some engravers, who did’nt have a large customer base and whose work was passable but not exceptional, are on the list because they were teachers or authors and touched a lot of up and coming engravers. I’m thinking of Benno Heune here. He was very kind to me back in early days of my FEGA show attendance. Other folks I can remember from early days at FEGA shows, who I looked up to and whose work I considered top notch then and still today, are not on the list because they did’nt stick with it enough to stay in the public eye and have no real name recognition today twenty years later.

If you think someone is worthy that’s not included, drop me a note and tell me what I’m missing about that person. I’m a reasonable guy, if I still don’t see it, then I’ll ask a few other engravers who have been around the block a time or two and see what they think before I say no.




A.A. White Engravers
Horaco Acevendo
Steve Adams
Cole Agee
Sam Alfano
John Amber
Andreas Amthor
ohio-ron banjo guy
John Barraclough
Wesley Bates
Angelo Bee
Rosa Bee
Black Hills Gold
Jim Blair
Gary Blanchard
Roger Bleile
Eric Boessler
Ralph Bone
Richard Boucher
Paul Brown
Allen Brown
Gino Cargnel
Joyce Carroll
Fred Carter
Winston Churchill
Phil Coggan
Michael Collins
Ray Cover
Creative Art
Chris DeCamillus
Ren'e Delcour
Stanley Diefenthal
Hans Doessel
Gustave Dor'e
Mike Dubber
Terry Dueget
Albrecht Dürer
E.S.
Rick Eaton
Bob Evans
Bob Findley
Cecile Flohimont
Firmo Fracassi
Franchesca Fracassi
Leonard Fracolini
Heinrich Frank
Josef Fugger
Felix Funken
Bill Gamradt
Tim George
Bottega Giovanelli
Don Glaser
D.J. Glaser
Glendo Corp.
Eric Gold
Manny Gonzales
Dan Goodwin
Arnold Griebel
Lee Griffiths
Phillipe Grifnee
GRS
Bryson Gwinnell
Paul Hamler
Barry Lee Hands
Fred Harrington
Frederic Harrison
Neil Hartliep
Frank Hendricks
Tim Herman
Tim Herman
Benno Heune
Yoshikazu Hijikata
Hiedemarie Hiptmayer
Kurt Horvath
Jesse Houser
Marcus Hunt
Ken Hurst
Bret Irby
Bill Jameson
Joseph
Harry Kell
Lance Kelly
Jim Kelso
Karl Klimsch
Rudolph Kornbrath
Rudolph J. Kornbrath
John Kusmit
Ben Lane
Ray LaTournea
Bruce LePage
Steve Lindsay
Frank Lindsay
Alain Lovenberg
Ron Lutz
Eberhard Mach
Franz Mack
John Madole
Bill Mains
Franz marktl
Brian Marshall
Lynton S.M. McKenzie
James B. Meek
New Orleans Arms
Ngraver
L.D. Nimschke
Franz Oblitshchnig
Old Dominion Engravers
Pachmayr Gun Works
Gianfranco Pedersoli
Rex Pederson
Giancarlo Pedretti
Stefano Pedretti
Ray Phillips
Scott Pilkington
Paul Piquette
Tiz Pozzobon
E.C. Prudhomme
Marty Rabeno
J.C. Randell
Rembrandt
J.J. Roberts
Jon Robyn
John Rohner
Carroll Rowles
Roger Sampson
Louis Sanchez
Diane Scalese
Martin Schongauer
Bruce Shaw
George Sherwood
Ben Shostle
Alexandre' Sidorov
Bill Sinclair
Ron Skaggs
Jim Small
Ron Smith
R.J. Smith
George B. Spring
Amayak Stepanyan
Martin Strolz
Robert Swartley
Tilden Swenson
Lisa Tomlin
Torcoli
Tom Turpin
Ishrael van Meckenem
Vigor Tool Company
Ray Viramontez
Louis Vrancken
Terry Wallace
Julie Warenski
Ken Warner
Floyd Warren
John Warren
Sam Welch
Rachel Wells
Johnny Weyerts
Alvin A. White
Claus Willig
R.L. Wilson
Mel Wood
Gustav Young


and if you have read this to the end, this is probably the longest post ever on the Cafe. Do I get a prize or something for that Sam?
 
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Sam

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Bill Jameson (Bill Zach)
Steve Adams
Both have made a huge impact in the coin carving field.

Dan Goodwin
Haven't heard much of him in years, but he was well known back in the '80's.

Yoshikazu Hijikata
Well known engraver and teacher in Japan, but not a household name in America.
 

JJ Roberts

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Scott..Here is a few more:
Denise Therion
Tim Adlam
Brian Hockstrat
Bill Brockway
Montejano
Joe Mason
Shigeru Tozaki
Don Bell

Hope this will help.

Yours truly,
JJ Roberts
Manassas, VA
 

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