Cafe Interview with Marcus Hunt

Sam

Chief Administrator & Benevolent Dictator
Staff member
Joined
Nov 6, 2006
Messages
10,490
Location
Covington, Louisiana
Abigail and I met Marcus and Ken Hunt this summer at Grandmasters 2006. Since we were all staying in the same hotel, we spent the next few days carpooling and sharing most meals together with lively discussions and much laughter. We had a truly enjoyable experience with two great engravers who share a deep passion for our art.

It is with great pleasure that I present an interview with my friend Marcus Hunt. I hope all Cafe members have the chance to meet him some day. In the mean time, I hope you enjoy this interview as you get to know more about the man behind the graver (and guitar).

I apologize for not having this interview online Sunday, but Abigail and I were away from home. / ~Sam

::: Engraving :::

Q. What's your name?
A. Marcus Hunt

Q. Where are you from?
A. I live in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England. It’s a small market town of around 6,500 people and is located on the edge of the Cotswolds about 20 miles NE of Oxford.

Q. How long have you been engraving?
A. (Quick calculation……) over 28 years now….eeeeeek!

Q. What made you want to become an engraver and how did you learn engraving ?
A. I’ve been around guns and engraving all my life because my father, Ken Hunt, is an engraver. I was going to join the army when I left school and had a guaranteed apprenticeship with them. Unfortunately it was into a trade which my heart didn’t fully encompass. Paul Roberts, who at the time owned Rigby’s, kept saying I should become my father’s apprentice so, with a month to go before I was to go into the army, I told Dad I’d changed my mind and asked if I could become his apprentice. Well, he cursed and fussed a bit saying he wasn’t set up and didn’t have any tools, etc but secretly I think he was pleased I’d chosen his trade.

Q. Are you a hobbyist or professional engraver?
A. Professional, but I count the hobo nickel carving as a hobby.

Q. What was your biggest obstacle when you first started?
A. Well, because dad wasn’t prepared for me to leave school and start with him straight away I had some very hokey tools. The vise was terrible but it was a start. The first slip and slice of the thumb and sticking the graver into my hand made me very nervous in the beginning, (I hate the site of blood, especially my own!) There’s none of that now with air assistance.

Q. Are you a hammer & chisel and/or push engraver, or do you use pneumatic?tools, or a combination of hand and power?
A. Yes. I was trained first and foremost with the push graver then latterly with hammer and chisel. I used these techniques until about 5 years ago when I discovered the GraverMax. I’d had a go with one a couple of years before at a gun show in Las Vegas but didn’t really have enough time to decide whether it would be of any use to me. My father finally got a GraverMax and after spending some time using his one I decided it was the route to go especially as gun steels seemed to be getting progressively harder and my shoulder was suffering because of this. Since getting the Max I never looked back. Sometimes I still use the push graver and I’m really pleased I learned this method first but I’ve now moved on to a GraverMach and love it. I’d hate to go back to full time ‘push’ or hammer and chisel now.

Q. What are your favourite books pertaining to engraving?
A. The old Italian books on engraving by Mario Abbiatico are my favourites and had a lot of influence on me. Also the recent Nobili book on the Creative Art guys….fantastic! Everyone raves about Meek’s book. It is good as a learning/teaching aid but don’t treat it as gospel. There are other/easier ways of doing a lot of the stuff he teaches in it. For example, I’ve never clamped a piece of gold in place for inlay work which is what he recommends.

Q. Of the old engraving masters, who's work is among your favourite?
A. It has to be Albrecht Durer. His work is incredible, what an artist!!! To think he made his engravings/prints in the 15th/16th century with no GraverMach or microscope is phenomenal. When engravers get into the ‘my tool’s better than yours,’ wars they should take time out and look at this man’s work and remember it’s not the tool but the engraver that turns out a masterpiece.

Q. What's the worst engraving mistake you ever made, and how did you fix it?
A. Working late one night I decided to start and finish a top lever to a Rigby double rifle, which I did. I’d been running 2 jobs (a pair of Purdey’s and the Rigby) simultaneously and had picked up a Purdey top lever instead of the Rigby one. When it came to fitting it into the action it just wouldn’t go in. Consequently I’d engraved it with Rigby large scroll instead of English fine. I took it to a gunsmith friend who was an ex-Purdey finisher. He filed the engraving out and had to file up the pair to match it. By trying to save time it ended up costing me nearly a day and a half with all the running around and the re-engraving I had to do.

Q. What are the majority of your engraving jobs (guns, jewellery, etc)?
A. The vast majority is gun/rifle work.

Q. What type of magnification do you use (microscope, Optivisor, etc)?
A. I use the microscope for the majority of my work now, mainly because it improves my posture. For some things though (like commercial large/small scroll jobs) I resort to the optivisor because it gives a wider field of view and I can work quicker but I have to be careful not to hunch over too much.

Q. What part of engraving do you find the most challenging or difficult?
A. Portraits are by far the most challenging. Also, when clients want their particular dog or something they know intimately, that can be a real challenge. To engrave a generic spaniel, say, is easy. But if it has particular characteristics that have to be captured to make it the client’s dog that’s a whole new ball game.

Q. What part of an engraving job do you dislike the most, and why?
A. I hate the small, fiddly, oddly shaped parts like top levers and the detonation. They are just tedious and end up boring the hell out of me. Also, the scenery in game scenes as it can be a challenge to think up something interesting and boring to cut blade after blade of grass.

Q. What's your favourite part of an engraving job, and why?
A. It’s got to be birds and animals. I love the way they develop from a few scratchings which look nothing like the creature they’re depicting. It’s at this time I usually have a crisis of confidence and think I wish I’d never taken on the job. But gradually with different cuts forming the shape and texture it develops into the animal or bird that I’m engraving. It feels like magic every single time.

Q. Do you like or dislike lettering, and why?
A. No, I quite enjoy it because I’m good at it and so many engraving jobs are let down by poor lettering. I don’t like gold inlaying very long name and addresses on bolt rifle barrels very much though because the undercutting of every little letter becomes tedious and if you try and cut corners the gold just won’t stay in and the radius of the barrel makes it difficult to get an even bed for the gold.

Q. What kinds of engraving do you refuse to do?
A. I won’t touch plated stuff like cheap trophies and medals as the plating can flake and it looks horrible.

Q. How do you rate the quality of engraving done today as opposed to 50 or?100 years ago??A. It very much depends on the engraver. There was beautiful small scroll done a hundred years ago and there was some awful stuff too, just as today. If we’re talking scene engraving the standard is much higher today but then we have so much better materials/media to work from, and a client base that demands it. But then again, take a look at Durer’s work and you’ll see beautiful scenes created hundreds of years ago.

Q. Do you perceive any part of hand engraving as a dying art?
A. Again, I refer you to Albrecht Durer. There doesn’t seem, to me, to be as much call for this type of work (please someone tell me I’m wrong) which is a great pity. Perhaps we don’t have the skills or client base for it to be produced any more or maybe it’d be too expensive for most pockets.

Q. What country or countries impress you with their highly skilled engravers?
A. None, there are highly skilled engravers all over the world. Italy produces great bulino, Germany/Austria stylized deep carving, England is good all around but produces some great scrollwork, USA is developing it’s own style and has some really great engravers too.

Q. What affect has the internet had on your hand engraving?
A. Research materials are fairly easy to get hold of now. Above all though, it’s communication and sharing of ideas with other engravers that is now possible whereas before we were all individual satellites doing our own thing.

Q. What advice would you give to someone who wants to learn engraving?
A. It’s a bit like the advice in the film ‘Karate Kid’……”Engraving do or engraving don’t, don’t walk in the middle – you’ll get nowhere.” By this I mean it’s not really something that you can just dabble at to become any good. There has to be some fire or passion that drives you to learn this art and it can be a very lonely path so you must like your own company.

::: Personal :::

Q. How many children do you have?
A. 0

Q. What's the occupation of your wife/husband?
A. Marketing executive

Q. If you have travelled, what was the most exciting country you visited?and what did you enjoy most?
A. That’s got to be Kenya, it’s so different from anything I’ve ever known and the wildlife was incredible.

Q. Do you have an interesting experience while travelling that you'd like?to share?
A. Whilst on the Kenyan trip I had the opportunity to fulfil a lifetime’s ambition – catching a Black Marlin! Whilst it wasn’t the biggest fish on the planet I thought I’d split my face with the grin I had. Gilly, my wife, was videoing the whole thing except, when we viewed it back at the hotel, she’d missed it completely…..she’d forgotten to push the record button in the excitement!

Q. What's the most interesting experience you had when meeting people??A. Meeting all the other engravers at GrandMasters last year, WOW!

Q. Besides engraving, what are your hobbies and interests?
A. Making music (guitar, mandolin and autoharp), Morris dancing (and the beer drinking that goes with it), fly fishing, skiing and travelling.

Q. Where is your favourite place to be?
A. In the Cotswold Hills, I love it and that’s why we moved here. Although the tourists come in droves it doesn’t take much to get away from them and there are the prettiest villages to be explored where no tourist dares tread!

Q. What’s one thing of which you are most proud?
A. Being my father’s son. He’s taught me so much and for that I’m forever grateful.

Q. Tell us something few people know about you.?
A. In my teens I was a Sea Cadet. During the Queens Silver Jubilee year of 1977, I was selected from hundreds of cadets to parade in Wembley arena on the Queen’s Review of the Reserve & Cadet Forces. A great day that will stay in my memory forever.

Q. Do you have any pet peeves?
A. Loutish, selfish behaviour.

Q. What is your favourite thing to do in your home town?
A. Going to the local pubs and restaurants, we have some great ones here.

Q. If you could have dinner with anyone in the world, who would it be?
A. My friends.

Q. What one person was most influential in your life?
A. As well as my father, my English teacher at school. His name was Mr Waugh and he was an ex-monk. He was the gentlest most interesting person I’d ever met and he taught us that the world wasn’t all just black and white but shades of grey. A lovely man and I hope he’s still alive and well.

Q. Who (living or deceased) would you most liked to have met?
A. Jesus, Moses and Mohammed. I’d like to meet them all at the same time and find out what their take is on the world at this time and to ask them if they envisaged their teachings being twisted into hatred and terrorism?

Q. Describe what you would think of as a perfect day.
A. Getting up on a glorious, sunny morning. Fresh coffee whilst relaxing and listening to music, followed by a successful afternoon’s fly fishing with friends; rounded off by a couple of pints of real ale in a lovely pub.

Q. Tell us a good short, clean joke.
A. A truck driver is crossing the Nevada Desert and he sees a sign at the side of the road ‘Little Sisters of the Poor Chicken Ranch, 15 miles’. 10 miles further on he sees another sign ‘Little Sisters of the Poor Chicken Ranch, 5 miles’ and he thinks to himself “Really? This I’ve got to try!”
5 Miles down the road he sees the brothel and sure enough there’s a cross and sign saying Little Sisters of the Poor Chicken Ranch. He gets out of his truck and walks through the front door of the building only to be greeted by Mother Superior herself!

“Dang,” he thinks “ I can’t go through with this,” and he turns to leave.

The nun calls out to him and tells him not to be embarrassed and that if he’d like to deposit $20 in the collection box he could ‘have some fun’.

“ Aw,” he thinks, “I got nothing to lose, why not give it a go?” so he places 20 bucks in the box. The Mother Superior then nods to him and points to a door to his left. “Just go through there,” she says and he does as he’s told.
To his surprise he finds himself back out in the desert with a sign in front of him saying “YOU HAVE JUST BEEN SCREWED BY THE LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR! HAVE A NICE DAY!!”?

Q. Is there anything else you'd like to say to the folks reading this?
A. This forum is one of the best ideas to come into the engraving world for a long time and I hope we hear more from other types of engravers as well. The gun, knife and jewellery engravers are great to share ideas with but I hope others such as western style, scrimshanders and glass engravers as well as any others who use the art form will participate too.
 

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Glenn

Elite Cafe Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2006
Messages
714
Two thumbs up for a great interview with a great engraver. I would some day like to meet you Marcus. I've enjoyed your comments on various threads that have posted on this forum. We are very fortunate to have Marcus participate on this website. It's humbleing to read your interview. Thanks so much.
Regards, Glenn
 

Rick Eaton

Elite Cafe Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2006
Messages
114
Location
Broadview, MT
Marcus,
Enjoyed the interview, as well as seeing your engraving. Was sorry I didn't get to the GrandMasters this year, would have liked to have meet you, been enjoying your take on posts on this and other forums, maybe next year. I can relate to learning from your father, mine made knives. Keep up the good work.

Rick
 

William Grubb

Elite Cafe Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2006
Messages
119
Location
Haubstadt ,In
Enjoyed reading the interview Marcus, you seem to have an interesting life,and do outstanding engraving. Hope to meet you some day.

Happy Trails,
Bill
 

Tim Wells

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
Nov 9, 2006
Messages
1,331
Location
Dallas, Georgia
Very interesting.

"Q. Describe what you would think of as a perfect day.
A. Getting up on a glorious, sunny morning. Fresh coffee whilst relaxing and listening to music, followed by a successful afternoon’s fly fishing with friends; rounded off by a couple of pints of real ale in a lovely pub". You are a man's man. Come over here and run for president!

You're also very cultured because in the south if your new bride forgot to hit record when you landed "the big one" it is grounds for immediate divorce; especially if it's a Bass.;)

Thanks you guys for a wonderful interview. One of my ambitions is to hear an English guy sing Bluegrass. Anybody have a recorder running up there at grand masters?
 

Tim Wells

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
Nov 9, 2006
Messages
1,331
Location
Dallas, Georgia
I just looked up Albrecht Durer because I'd never heard of him. I saw some of his engravings and they just absolutely blew me away, especially considering the tools and magnification we use now that he didn't!

Thanks for the education Markus.
 

fegarex

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
Nov 8, 2006
Messages
2,061
Location
Ludington, MI
Marcus,
Great interview! Glad I had a chance to meet you at the Grand Masters. Wish we all had more time to visit than we did. Also, its too bad you got stuck with Sam for all those dinners!! Just kidding...
Now, you need to try to get to the FEGA show one of these times!
 

Ken Hurst

Elite Cafe Member
Joined
Nov 17, 2006
Messages
322
Location
Robersonville, N.C
Hi again Marcus, It was good talking with you today & I'd like to wish you all the luck with your hand and shoulder --- get well soon. Sorry I won't be able to meet you in person when y'all come over . Best regards, Ken
 

Andrew Biggs

Moderator
Joined
Nov 10, 2006
Messages
5,034
Location
Christchurch, New Zealand
Hi Marcus

Great interview. Really enjoyed that.

Down here if you go fly fishing in the afternoon you miss the action as it all happens in the morning and evening. So we fly fish in the morning and then pub in the afternoon. Unless it's raining hard of course...then it's just the pub for the whole day. And of course our beers cold!!!! :)

Hope your shoulder thing is working out OK.

A very merry Christmas to you

Andrew
 
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