Scott Pilkington: Artist in Steel
Scott Pilkington is an engraver with a wide and varied experience in the engraving world. He started with Meeks book and a set of tools as a Christmas gift his senior in high school back in 1981. After graduating high school he attended a NRA Engraving Course at Trinidad, Colorado lead by Neil Hartleip and decided to make cutting steel his life’s vocation. He considers himself to be very fortunate to have studied with names like Frank Hendricks, Ron Smith, Lynton McKenzie and Sam Alfano at an early stage in his career. He started with hammer and chisel engraving and spent nearly a decade practicing the art in that fashion. Also, he taught both week long, and weekend Seminars at the Appalachian Center for Crafts teaching traditional methods only. Finally, he achieved Professional Status in the Firearms Engravers Guild of America in 1989 with this set of Dakota Rifles.
In 1991 he made the switch to the GRS air assisted equipment which started a new phase of productivity. In 1996 he began teaching basic engraving classes at the GRS Training Center in Emporia, Kansas. Since that time, the prestige and fame of GRS schools have grown world-wide and GRS list of teachers includes many famous names. Ironically, Scott was the senior instructor in terms of length of teaching time at GRS, while he was the youngest overall.
In the course of his career, Scott has engraved Jewelry, Car and Motorcycle parts, one of a kind custom firearms and museum grade knives to factory production work for names like Winchester, Kolar, North American Arms, Hammerli as well as the great British firm Holland & Holland.
His work has been featured in numerous periodicals and books both in the US and abroad. A number of those magazines have had cover shots featuring his work, the first one appearing in 1985 on GUNS Magazine. He has also taught mini seminars and tutorials at major gun and knife shows, over the years including being a featured presenter at the 2004 FEGA show. A copy of Scott’s Scrollwork DVD is available from the Firearms Engravers Guild of America.
Although he worked as a full-time self employed engraver from the age of 20 until he was 38 in the year 1998 At that time he became heavily involved in the world of Olympic Shooting which has culminated in his business Pilkington Competition which currently has five employees working with him. His world travels related to the business and the Olympic Team have allowed him to visit and study with engravers and engraving techniques in countries such as as Egypt, Australia and China, as well as the more expected locations such as the US, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Italy.
At the present time, Scott is only working on select commissions, many of which fall into the unique American art form of “hobo nickels”. He is currently using a Lindsay Palm Control as his primary engraving tool.
From a fascinating love of scrollwork and it’s intrinsic attraction to humans, Scott has carried the art to many places while at the same time learning many new things the way. He loves sharing that love and teaching the things he has learned about design and technique to make you too an “Artist in Steel”. To read more, click here.