They come out like widgets from a press. Black guns are almost indistinguishable from one another. They’re highly effective, reliable, and functional, yet they lack any visual embellishment to transform them from tools to art. This has not always been the case, however. There was a day when a person’s firearm was at least in some way modified to make it eye-catching. While some see adding a paint job or different grips as an attempt to be unique in a pile of snow, it usually falls short. This brings us to gun engraving. One of the classic methods of really dressing up a gun was engraving. To many, it is a lost art with very few current practitioners. However, The truth is that the art is still alive and thriving. Meet Melissa McMinn. The Queen of Gun Engraving.

Melissa McMinn – Master Engraver

McMinn is an interesting story. With a background in organismal biology and biochemistry, she considers herself a “nerd at heart.” She said, “Even as a kid, I always gravitated to the arts, sculpting, painting, drawing, as a diversion from the more systematic studies.” She seemed to always be walking on two sides of the line: one in her science world and one in the art world. 

The Journey

“While in college, I wrote for a small motorcycle magazine and became enthralled with pinstriping and traditional hot rod arts, such as hand lettering, pinups, and flame jobs,” she said. “Once I started painting motorcycles and cars, that led me to move to California, Los Angeles specifically, the epicenter of Kustom Kulture arts, and I worked for Harley Davidson for about a year while painting on the side.”  She ultimately returned to the science world and worked in the biotech industry for 15 years. Even with that career, she never really left her art behind. “During that time, I continued to pinstripe and do leatherwork, and also picked up engraving as a hobbyist, honing my skills nights and weekends,” she said. After she met her now husband, they decided to head to LA again and launch her career as an artist. They headed to Florida from LA, where she now runs her successful business. 

To many, including myself, it is a curiosity about what led her to engraving. “I can’t pinpoint an exact moment or thing, but growing up in Kansas, my father was an avid shooter, and I’m guessing at some point through going to shows and gun club meetings with him, I saw an engraved gun somewhere, and it lodged itself in my subconscious,” she said. 

Master Mentor

As a gun owner, Melissa said her need to embellish and customize them took hold. Like many of us, she tried her best at self-teaching. However, after a year or two, she ultimately sought out the help of a master and ended up learning from John Barraclough.  “John and I became great friends, and I consider him my biggest mentor in the art,” she said. Melissa prefers metalwork while still keeping a few other irons in the fire. “I still pinstripe, oil paint, carve, and sculpt occasionally, but rarely take commissions, something just for fun.

While her catalog of work is extensive, there is a more recent piece you may have seen. The studio commissioned Melissa to engrave the dueling pistols featured in John Wick Four. The studio provided concept material but asked her to take it and bring it to life as she saw it. The detail and overall look are stunning.

Engravers Guild

Her work on a Cabot gun earned her the Best Engraved Handgun of 2020 award at the Firearms Engravers Guild of America (FEGA) convention. It was also one of three submissions that earned her the prestigious Master Engraver status. The other two submissions were a Kimber K6 and a Kimber Micro 9. It is also noteworthy that only three women were designated FEGA Master Engravers, and Melissa earned the title at the youngest age.

I have been in the firearms industry for a long time, and I have only encountered professional engravers a few times. So, I asked Melissa just how many people are still hand engraving. 

“I believe there are about 200 members listed with The Firearms Engravers Guild of America and about 45 FEGA Master Engravers,” she said. “Some are full-timers, others hobbyists, and some no longer engraving. Many engravers are not part of the guild.” 

Beyond Guns

Work of this nature is time-consuming, to say the least. In addition to a workload on items such as knives, jewelry, and watches, Melissa does about a dozen firearms a year. Each project is quite extensive.

“It completely depends on the gun and design components,” she said concerning the time to complete a project. “Some stainless guns can take up to twice as long as a carbon steel gun because of the difficulty of the metal and the constant need to sharpen tools. Inlays, background relief, and bulino game scenes are extremely time-consuming. Detailing one 0.75-inch animal in photorealism can take several long days by itself, sometimes longer. 

Lasers Vs. Hands

Over the years, I have seen several guns with very intricate designs. However, something looked almost artificial about them. When I looked deeper, I found that lasers had made the designs. While they looked OK, something seemed cold about them. 

“Well, as my saying goes, fine hand engraving…because lasers are for spaceships,” Melissa said. “Ha ha…in all seriousness though, you’ll immediately appreciate the difference if you’ve ever held, touched, and examined a finely hand-engraved gun versus that of a laser engraving. The quality difference between a skilled hand engraver and a machine is no contest. Laser work has a ‘flatness’ to it. Some of the shallower laser work isn’t truly engraved at all; it’s basically burnt into the surface and can be removed with light sanding and minimal effort. Even deep laser burns cannot polish the walls of their cuts, construct elaborate inlay patterns, or add that undeniable human touch to a bulino scene. 

“Lasers are developing their place in our world, but there will always be a niche and desire for traditional hand craftsmanship. There is a romance to it. Knowing I’m creating things that will outlast my lifetime is rewarding.”

Hand Gun Engraving

People are often stunned at the time and effort that go into gun engraving. In short, people don’t know what they don’t know. So, what are some of the things that Melissa believes people don’t understand about hand engraving? 

“I would say the time investment is a huge surprise to people, as well as the techniques,” she said. “Humans have always had a unique affinity to adorn and customize their possessions, long before the advent of lasers, modern coatings, and commodity methods.

“If you look at the history of gun engraving and how things were engraved, it’s quite remarkable that many of the antique museum-quality pieces you might see were crafted via endless hours of push engraving and hammer and chisel work—methods many of us still use today. I still do all my inlay work with a hammer and chisel. I like to be able to feel the chisel undercut the inlay cavities. The stick of the chisel gives me confidence in each cut that my inlays will be tight and secure. You don’t get the same feel with the pneumatic tools, but I use them for most cutting.”

Like many, I am often taken with the beauty of hand-engraved guns. I’m thrilled that the craft continues in McMinn’s capable hands.

For even more info, visit melissamstudios.com.