When Lisa Tomlin first saw an engraved firearm, her eye fell in love with the rich materials and delicate details of the artform. This experience would push her to study under Ken Hurst, who owns Ken Hurst Firearm Engraving Co.

Now, she runs a business dedicated to engraving firearms and knives called Lisa Tomlin Engraving. Her favorite part of her work is the creation process of engravings. Over time, as manufacturing has transitioned from human hands to machines, hand-chiseled engravings on firearms and knives have become less and less common. Lisa is one of only 46 FEGA Master Engravers in the world.

Kinute recently spoke with Tomlin about her work and what it means to her.

Q: Tell us about your journey as a fine artist: How does one come to be a master engraver?

A: Well, my story's a little bit unusual and serendipitous; I never took any formal art classes, or anything like that, and all I did was just enjoyed growing up pencil drawing. When I became a young adult. Being in a firearm-loving family, I would see engraved firearms and, of course, I thought that was fascinating and wondered how someone would go about becoming an engraver. Let's fast forward a few years and a friend of mine sold my art at an art show and he said, ‘you would be a good engraver.’ So I ended up finding out there was an engraving shop literally 5 miles down the road from me and I went down there and I met them and they hired me and I apprenticed under him. … I didn't actually seek it out; it kind of sought me out.

Did you grow up around hunting/sporting culture? Are you a hunter nowadays?

I didn't really grow up as a child around it, except my father introduced me to fishing and the outdoors and the love of the outdoors. He hunted very little. When I got married - and I got married very young, 18 years old - my husband was an avid hunter. He introduced me and we would go hunting together, and I really stopped hunting when I had my first child, just didn't have the time. And my daughter, she was my second child, I took her hunting one day and her father of course took her hunting when she was young. … From that point she became probably the most avid hunter in the family. She is an avid bow huntress and she strictly bow hunts. And so we passed it on; I don't do much of it anymore. I grew up loving it.

Do you feel that this is a dying art form, or are there younger people becoming interested in the craft?

Years ago, if you’d asked me that I would have said it was kind of dying. Here in the last few years, probably the last five to 10 years, … there’s a younger group that are just flooding the engraving market with the most amazing talent. But using a hammer and chisel like I do, I will say is dying.

Why do you think that is?

I don't know, I guess most of the American engravers now use a pneumatic machine – it's an air powered engraver – and I’ve always stuck with the hammer and chisel. There still some of us left, but the younger people that are being introduced to the art, most of them that I know are using the airpower machine. …  In America right now, maybe not in Italy, but in America, you know it's like anything else. Whittling wood is kind of a dying art.

 Tell us about the general process of working with a client on a specific project.

Well, first of all, they start off communicating what they want. I’ve done – sometimes it’s jewelry – but mainly knives and guns. Then we can begin communicating on what their interest is; what they want on their gun, how much they want to spend, and then we refine that as it goes along, to a point of where they're sending me the piece and I'm doing preliminary artwork for them and it's just a step process.

What is your favorite part of this kind of work?

I would say it's taking something (and) actually making it a timeless piece of art. Some of these knives and guns are beautifully made to begin with, there are some of them (that are) already art in themselves. But then I take them and I guess it’s just kind of bringing them to life, so to speak.

Over the years, how many pieces have you completed?

That one I don't think I can answer – more than I can count. Thousands of pieces. I’ve been doing this for 39 years, so yeah, I couldn’t tell you – that’s one I don’t think I could even come close to answering.

Do you have a favorite piece?

I can’t say that I do. I guess I have favorite elements of things I've done. For instance, not long ago I did a leopard – and I said that's my favorite leopard I've ever done, but the pieces themselves, I can't think of one particular piece.

I engraved it (the leopard) on a family heirloom shotgun. And I'll have to say this kind of is a favorite part of doing the job – this gentleman wanted this old shotgun to tell a story of his grandparents’ lives – they were African safari hunters. He grew up in parts of Africa, he inherited this gun and he kind of wanted it to tell a story, and so I put their portrait on the bottom, and the leopard literally was so small, it could have fit in a penny, and it was my favorite leopard I ever did. But it wasn’t the biggest job I've ever done, by no means.

There are many different styles of engraving - which particular style and/or era most inspires your work?

I kind of pull from several styles – American, German, Italian. I think my favorite of them all are the Italian engravings and their style, and but I try to pull elements from all of those and I have my own unique style. A lot of engravers do that, but I kind of have my own unique style that I pull from all of them. However, I will engrave whatever. If someone says I want an English engraving, I will. I will abide by their wishes, but if somebody asks me to use my own style, I have my own.

And what about the Italian style makes you like it a lot?

Oh, it’s so delicate. I think it's just the delicate nature of it. And it’s so flawlessly done, and the Italians, of course, are famous for being the best. I think it's - I'm going to call it a feminine. Which I guess is why it appeals to me, it has kind of a feminine nature to it.

I think why I love working, especially on firearms, is because a lot of people’s firearms are personal to them, and when I'm doing engraving on them, and we speak; they tell me their wishes. I’m kind of telling a personal story for them, and it becomes personal to me too.