A Zahl native has made his mark through an elite art form.

Jerome Glimm's custom gun engravings are sought all over the country.

Glimm graduated from the Zahl area in 1961, and now resides in Conrad, Mont. (60 miles north of Great Falls).

His gold and silver inlays place the perfect design on the firearms.

Popular designs include the American scroll, the black leaf scroll, oak leaf scroll, German black leaf scroll, the English scroll and German scroll. These are blended with designs from animals and birds. Glimm started doing the work in 1978. He is self-taught. "When I was a kid, I was fascinated with guns. This kind of work caught my interest," he said. That coupled with a natural ability to sketch what he saw, eventually made a good match. "I did a lot of drawing when I was young," he said.

His day job for 25 years was automotive body and fender work. In 1987, he began doing the engraving work full-time.

"I do rifles, shotguns and hand-guns. Some are antiques, but a lot are modern guns that people just want to dress up and improve," Glimm said.

There are modern air powertools available for his craft, but Glimm insists on using the hand-burned and chisel tool approach for completing his designs. "For me, it's the integrity of doing it the old way," he explained. "Collectors prefer it too."

His steady hands may spend between 20 and 200 hours on an engraving, depending upon the size and intricacy of the work. Prices for completing the work range between $200 and $8,000.

He used to frequent some gun shows to display his specialty, but now he shows mostly at the Firearms, Gunmakers and Engraving Exhibit held in Reno, Nev. You can visit his website at www.gunengraver.biz