Barry Lee Hands’ career as a firearms engraver began at the tender age of seventeen. Thirty years later, Hands is one of the most respected custom firearm engravers in the world. Earlier this year, he earned the Firearms Engravers Guild of America’s “Best Engraved Rifle” and “Engravers Choice Award of Merit”. An expert on the history of engraving, Hands has penned articles for such prestigious publications as The Double Gun Journal, Shooting Sportsman, Gunmaker and Engraver. He was generous enough to sit down with F.M. ALLEN for this two-part interview and share his thoughts on the ancient art of gunmaking, the pursuit of the elusive “hunt of a lifetime” and what motivates a man to spend so much money on a gun.
FMA: How long does it take you to make a custom rifle from start to finish and how much of that time is spent on the custom engraving?
Hands: A bespoke custom rifle from my shop requires three years. This is from the taking of the clients order with specifications until delivery. There are a number of things that must be done, such as ordering barrels and selecting a stock blank and other parts. Most of these are kept in inventory and the parts become a bespoke rifle when the barrel is fitted to the action and chambered for the selected cartridge. Once everything is ready to go the labor time involved to actually build the rifle is six or seven weeks. That gives us an American classic stocked action with quarter ribs, sights, and/or scope bases as the client specifies, usually on a Mauser, Hagn, or Dakota action. Then it goes to finishing and engraving as has been directed by the client in the original order.
Some projects can be completed sooner as we keep in inventory some almost completed “in the white” projects for those clients which are in need of a custom rifle for the field on short notice. These are in the popular calibers such as .458 Winchester magnum, .416 Rigby, .375 Holland & Holland, .300 Winchester magnum, 7×57, .270 Winchester, and .30-06. These can often be finished in three months or less.
I use only the very best workmen; mostly members of the American Custom Gunmakers Guild. Current project lineups include expert workmanship by men such as Jerry Fisher, Lee Helgeland and Gary Goudy. It takes time to do the very best work.
My engraving adds another 150 to 200 hours, as each example is a unique design.
Hands' Award Winning Work on a Jerry Fisher 7x57.
What single piece of your work are you most proud of?
I recently engraved a piece Jerry Fisher built on a Hagn Action barreled in 7×57. It won “Best Engraved Rifle” and “Engravers Choice Award of Merit” at the Firearms Engravers Guild of America, American Custom Gunmakers Guild exhibition this year. It featured all sculpted fully relieved Arabesque ornament with fully sculpted game scenes. The only gold was on the safety. It is very unusual to win these awards without a lot of gold, and I was humbled to be so honored by my peers. Jerry Fisher and I planned to build a rifle that looked like it could have been built 80 years ago, or today, and it came off really well.
What led to rifle engraving becoming an art form and who were some early pioneers in the craft?
I have spent quite a bit of time and research reflecting upon that question, actually. I’ll only share a few of my thoughts for the sake of brevity.
The highest and most valued form of treasure throughout history has been ornamented weapons. When we look to literature for examples of the value placed on engraved weapons– there are many. In Book VI of the Iliad, Homer describes how Adrestos, defeated in battle, pleads for his life at the point of Menelaos’ spear. Adrestos offers a tempting ransom of “gold and smithied iron” from the treasures in his father’s palace. In addition Homer describes Hector carrying a spear eleven cubits long, having a bronze point, with a “ring of gold on the shaft”.
Achilles is described as godlike, and appropriately, wears armor fashioned by a God, Hephaestus. Homer goes into great detail describing the shield and the chasing, repose, and engraving wrought by this God, which was very ambitious work. The infinite detail, as described by Homer, would have made this a fine piece to examine, but unfortunately this work is lost to us.
The tradition of high value continued throughout history. In Michelangelo’s day the Pope could commission three sculptures by the great artist for the price of a single suit of Negroli armor.
King Louis XIV kept many fine weapons by makers such as Frenel and Froumont, and even after the revolution Napoleon Bonaparte continued the tradition with weapons by Boutet, working in the empire style which I believe influenced greatly the renowned Australian-American engraver Lynton S. M. McKenzie.
In the United States a man by the name of L.D. Nimschke was the preeminent engraver of the second half of the nineteenth century. He did a number of Spencers and Sharps rifles, some Winchesters, and a lot of handguns–an estimated five thousand firearms in all. Also at that time there were Conrad, John, and George of the Ulrich family, three generations who engraved for Winchester for most of one hundred years. The influence of these four men, especially on lever gun and model 21 engraving, can still be seen.
After 1900 there were a number of lesser names and generally the quality of the work slipped, with one noticeable exception, Rudoph J. Kornbrath, who was active from just prior to World War I until his death in 1937. His fine and detailed Germanic and Arabesque creations have had a huge impact on present day American engraving.
Man's obsession with beautiful weapons goes back a long way.
How did you become interested in guns and engraving?
My mother was an art instructor and I spent many hours as a child learning to use chisels and files in jewelry applications and other artwork.
I was lucky my mother liked to shoot, as my father had been with the First Marines in the Second World War and although he was a hunter–he lost his taste for it after returning from Pelelieu and Okinawa.
As she was of Montana extraction, my mother taught me to operate a model 61 .22 repeater from prone position when I was six and I was given my first deer rifle at 14 or so.
Having read all of Jack O’Connor’s books, which were gifts from my grandfather, I kept my weapons clean and well maintained as I had read it was the proper thing to do.
Shortly after high school I was offered a position and training as an engraver at a jewelry company, which I accepted and learned the basics.
Later, I worked with Steve Huff who was trained in Europe to engrave by Rene Delcour. Dan Goodwin was also one of my coworkers. Steve and Dan had engraved guns for Colt and other companies. It was through them that I met Jerry Fisher and Monte Mandarino, who are my colleagues and associates still.
During these years I also worked as an Elk guide in the fall for many seasons, giving me opportunity to form my own opinions on rifles, cartridge selection, and rifle hunting.
In 1991, I went independent as a firearms engraver and it is a fascinating and enjoyable career.
Click here for Part II of our conversation with Barry.
2 Comments
September 4, 2009 at 5:41 am
Love the Jerry Fisher 7mm Mauser! Nothing like a fine engraved breech loading rifle!!
September 4, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Are you lucky enough to own one, Clay? If so…let’s get a hunt set up.