Engraving Art

From the begining to the gunstock carving: In ancient days the Egyptians and Babylonians used to use woodcuts to imprint intaglio designs into unpressed bricks. Back then the Romans also had made fretworks for stamping symbols and letters. Sometimes before that the Chinese used wood blocks creating patterns on textiles and even for illustrating readings. At the beginning of the 15th cent. woodcuts reached Europe. They first appeared in religious pictures which had been made mostly for distribution to pilgrims, as well as on playing cards and simple prints. At that time the artist and the artisan used to be the same person. The one to design the cut and to carve the wood block had to had the talent for painting and the vision of the carving itself. May be the first dated woodcarvers from Europe is St.Christopher who brought the craft to a precise art.

In England a new carving technique had been developed by Thomas Bewick. He popularized wood engraving by using the so called white-line engraving, in which print white on a black background. This way of working he brought to perfection that we recognize even today. For that time probably the best-known wood engravers were the Dalziel brothers but John Swain was well recognized as well. The most famous French master in this field in the 19th cent. was Gustave Dore. William Blake used to engrave wood for most of his book illustrations. In the United States wood and gunstock carving had been practiced by such masters as Alexander Anderson, William James Linton, and Timothy Cole. They worked during the 19th cent. and had created superb and most appreciated wood engravings. The woodcut traveled from China to Japan in the sixth century A.D. in the down of Buddhism. It was not only a religion but a lifestyle as well so the first Japanese woodcuts were religious in subject matter. In western art woodcutting developed as an expansion of the utilitarian printing of textiles from wood blocks used extensively in the early 14th century. Even though paper was known in some European countries from the 11th century, it was not until it was put in mass production in Italy and France during the 14th century that the art of the woodcut began to reveal. In southern Germany, joinery began also as comparatively primitive religious statues.

Engraving is an art as much as it is a craft. It consists in cutting lines in all kind of materials like metal or wood. It can be used for decorating or for reproduction through printing. When it comes to wood it is more accurately to be said that engraving includes all kinds of sculpture in wood. Woodcutting is an intaglio printing process and in it the lines are cut in the wood blocks with a burin or sometimes with an engraver. Engraving the material the craftsman can produce decorative bas-relief on small objects, life-size figures in the round, furniture, and architectural decorations. Usually the most common employed woods include boxwood, pear, oak, walnut, ebony, pine and willow. The tools that are used for processing the wood are simple gouges, chisels, wooden mallets, and pointed instruments.

Some of the most sought-after decorated rifles ever manufactured in the late 1800s were designed by Winchester. Savage Arms had a catalogue in 1900 featuring many carved stocks. According to the leaders in the field, Colt and Winchester, the market for carved barrels and gunstocks during the 1950s and 1960s almost equaled that of the 1800s. This artistic tradition was carried into the today's present by Weatherby and a few others who added game scenes as additional choices as well.

Nowadays those works of art are not common among the manufactured guns or any other kind of weapons. May be one of the best ways to obtain an exquisite carving on you gunstock is to relay on artisans like M.M. Kurtev. Gifted craftsman as he is, turns your gun in to an elegant piece of art that would be precious for you and will be valuable for the next generations of your family.

The most skilled European masters traditionally practice the art of custom gunstock carving and engraving on expensive guns and rifles. Only some years ago such practice has also established in the United States. That is the time when the first gun owners who recognized the delightful feeling to own a beautiful hand-carved gunstock or luxury pistol grips appeared.

The tradition of having a elaborately carved firearm originated here in Europe since the time when hunting was looked upon as a very serious undertaking. We sowed our reverance for the passion of hunting by depict it on the gunstocks themselves having animal's likeness carved into the stocks of the most prized rifles. The aristocracy in Europe would never consider hunting with something less than a weapon with beautiful custom gunstock carving and engraving to show respect for the wildlife they hunt.

A specific kind of art such as carving and engraving has been highly estimated in America by those who take guns and hunting not only as a hobby but as a real passion. An exquisite and detailed hand-carving on a hunter's gunstock shows not only pride and value but it makes your gun unique as well.