Bill Mains
400 E. Main St.
Knightstown, IN 46148
765-445-9243
billmainsgunengraver@yahoo.com
http://www.billmainsengraver.com
Bill, a charter member of FEGA, served apprenticeships as a goldsmith and watchmaker while still in High School in Ft Lauderdale, Florida in the early 1950’s. Upon graduation in 1954, Bill went to Bowman Technical School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania to take their course in hand jewelry engraving. In early 1955 Bill received his draft notice and joined the Air Force. It was while serving in The Stratigic Air Command (SAC) in the height of the Cold War that Bill started engraving guns. In 1959, after his discharge, from the Service, Bill invented the Rotary Footwheel Engraving Bench. This devise, resembling a potter’s wheel with a lathe chuck on top has allowed Bill, still a hammer and chisel engraver, to easily compete with all the engravers using the newer power handpieces. Bill’s artwork has appeared on national magazine covers, centerfolds and books, too numerous to mention, over the past five decades. Bill has been the engraver for several factories on a contract basis. He was the primary Colt factory engraver from 1968 to 1972, and is attributed in the books with engraving more Post War single actions, by far, than anyone else. Although Colt frouned on signing the engraving, Bill’s factory engraved Colts are stamped with a small buffalo under the cylinder pin, as Bill was working out of Buffalo, New York at the time. They never said anything about the buffalo. In addition to all types of conventional engraving, Bill also makes custom shotgun grip caps for clients all over the world. Contact him for a stock cast kit and he can make a cap that fits your stock perfectly without ever seeing the gun. |
