It’s the art of cutting metal with a chisel, rather than a rotary tool or by using acid etching, or the laser process . . Even though they might call those engraving, they’re actually etching. A lot of cheaper guns these days have what they call an “engraving” on them, but they’re actually photo etched. That makes the engraving flat and dull, it has no shape or style, let alone any uniqueness, because they’re one of a million copies. Hand engraving is done with a sharp chisel so that you get a two-sided cut. Both sides reflect light and that’s what gives the engraving its flair.

Modern engraving? Modern guns are pretty ugly. They’re machines that go “BANG.” In the old days, guns were different. They were styled with form and grace. They had pleasing shapes about them. Engraving really lends its self to cowboy guns. We all have a Ruger Vaquero, a Colt, or whatever. The gun is one of a million. Engrave it, and it’s one of a kind. That’s why Cowboy shooting has been so good to engravers. As for myself, I can’t shoot for squat. But if I can’t shoot, at least I can look good. This is something that people can afford. And it sets your gun apart from everyone else’s. Engraving adds to the beauty and value of the gun. If people can give me an idea for a design, I can do it, but I really like to do the designs that come from the 1880s. Over the years I’ve developed my own style that has the same (old west) look about it.

I’m a “chaser.” That’s a guy that uses a hammer and chisel. That’s the way it’s been done for a thousand years. But, when they came out with tools like this air driven impact hammer, we got a “power assist.” It’s a hand tool; used as a chisel, only it’s a little more powerful yet delicate, so you get a sharper, cleaner cut. It’s been around quite a while. Probably over forty years. Several generations of engravers have used it. It’s a good tool, and I like the convenience of it. It’s like this…if you have a carpenter that’s making a cabinet and he is hand sawing all his boards, instead of using a power saw, he’s going to go much more slowly. He’s a skilled carpenter either way, but his work is made more economical by his use of modem tools. Sewing is the same thing. When that treadle machine came out in 1890, it was the most popular item sold in the Sears catalogue.  Suddenly it was faster and cheaper to make clothes. Innovations come along. With the air driven impact hammer I am free-hand engraving with the extra power to cut modern steel.

The guy who broke that factory tradition was L. D. Nimschke. He’s my personal hero. He was from Germany, which was where most of the engravers were from. He was in it for himself, his own boss. He worked for factories on a job by job basis. Nimschke was an engraver in Brooklyn, New York, and did incredible work. He was capable of doing very ornate stuff, yet he was also a businessman, a practical man, so he also did designs that normal people could afford. He engraved not only guns, but also knives, doorplates for merchants, anything metal that you’d want to decorate.   The major gun manufacturers would bring him the really special orders, a presentation piece for the President, that sort of thing. Nimschke didn’t work according to the factory mold. He had his own style and it was special. The guy was a natural talent.
The Urichs were a family of engravers who worked for Winchester for many years, actually for several generations. Some of them were good; some were bad and just living off grandpa’s name. Factory engraving has fallen apart since the 50s and 60s, for business reasons. Now when the factories do engraving, they typically “job it out”. Unfortunately, that was profitable for the first 15-20 years, but who’s training the new engravers now?

Colt and Winchester did most of the engraving at the factories. Very few engravers back then were “after market” as I am. The factory was very departmental. Everything was controlled within their department. Factory engravers did things the “Colt” way or the “Winchester” way, and got paid next to nothing for standard designs, “A, B, or C.” But then each factory might have one or two really good guys, master engravers, who would do the presentation pieces. They’d do a gun that was given to the Secretary of State, or Secretary of War, or a foreign Potentate. That master engraver would be capable of doing very unique work. Animals, fantasy, naked ladies or whatever that foreign potentate was “in” to. He might do the customized part, the scene, and then hand it off to a secondary engraver to do the scroll. In the factory system you could do that.

Engraving has been done for centuries, since people started using metal. In the 1880s, which is the period that we’re all into, engraving was expensive. In reality, these Colt 45s that we’re all wearing on our hips were luxuries. Most people back then wouldn’t dream of having these guns. They would have had a cheap little pocket pistol that they got in a keg of flour. That was really the gun that won the west. 45’s were twelve to eighteen dollars, which was a whole lot of money back then. When you throw in the extra six to eight bucks to have it engraved, that’s a month’s income for somebody! But, anybody who was proud of their gun – lawmen, gunfighters, store-keepers, merchants or the upper class of the period, quite often, would have had engraved guns.