The path to Lincoln Gulch Engraving and Leatherworks

Heidi and Jim Agner have lived in Lincoln since 2013 and are the husband and wife duo behind Lincoln Gulch Engraving and Leatherworks. They live with their two dogs, Shep, a collie, and Sally, a springer spaniel.

Heidi handles the leatherwork part of the business, and Jim does the en-graving, though they got their starts at different times.

Heidi began working with soft leath-er over 30 years ago, she said, using deer skin and similar materials. She eventual-ly started working with leather to make belts and holsters.

"It's almost impossible to find hol-sters that are for left-handed people," said Jim, who happens to be left-hand-ed. Heidi started working on holsters to make one for Jim, and for Christmas one year, Jim bought Heidi a profes-sional leather stitcher.

Jim got his start engraving after hav-ing a custom gun made and learning just how much it cost to get it engraved.

"I'm somewhat of a firearms en-thusiast. I was spending all this money having this custom revolver made. I spent $600 additionally for the engrav-ing. When I got it back, I really liked it," he said, but he added that you don't get much engraving for $600. He told Heidi that he wished he could have more guns engraved, but it wasn't something they could afford. The next Christmas, Heidi got him a ball vice, equipment for engraving, and a one-week class at a school in Kansas that taught engraving, where he returns each year to take addi-tional classes from master engravers.

"What this is is a strange love story," said Heidi. "He, of course, encouraged me with buying leather equipment, and I encouraged him with buying engrav-ing equipment and courses. We both love doing what we do."

The Agners have taken a circuitous route to settle into their full-time en-graving and leatherwork business. They originally moved to Montana right after high school and got married in Pattee Canyon outside of Missoula.

"We were high school sweethearts," they said in unison.

They spent 12 years in Arlee before heading up to Alaska for 25 years.

"We loaded up everything we had and the two children, who were six months and 22 months old. We got to Alaska, tooled around for three months, settled down in a house, and worked our way from kinda close to Anchorage out to the wilds of Alaska," said Heidi.

They spent a couple years in Nelson Lagoon, a tiny community of about 80 on the Bering Straight, and then moved to Petersburg, where they both even-tually ended up working for the police department. Jim became chief of police and Heidi served as sergeant.

"Alaska was good to us, we retired in 2013, and we always knew we wanted to come back to Montana," said Heidi.

"Luckily, there was a little house on our property here that we could turn into our shop. We got to this point, this was in Alaska, we actually moved all our furniture out of our living room, and we just set up work benches in our liv-ing room. We didn't have a lot of guests over," said Heidi.

During their time in Alaska, they both worked to hone their craft.

"She made holsters for undercover police officers, the drug guys. I wasn't sure I was good enough, so I didn't charge anything," said Jim, adding that he just did work for friends in the early days on the agreement that they wouldn't be upset if he ruined it.

"We always say, if I make a mistake, the leather goes in the fire," said Heidi. "But if Jim makes a mistake..."

"There's no metal eraser," said Jim.

Even now, he said he tries to keep prices reasonable.

"I knew I couldn't afford to get engraving done. I set my prices with the idea to try to make it as absolutely af-fordable as possible. My prices are low because I always figure it's about the art. Most of my clients are working class people," said Jim.

Jim has been engraving for about 12 years now and works mostly on fire-arms, as well as serving on the board of directors for the Firearms Engravers Guild of America, which is the only engravers guild in the world and the only place where you can be certified as a master engraver.

"To be a master, you have to be a master of all things engraving. I haven't applied yet for master status because I Bulino is the type of dot metal engrav-ing that is used for print designs on money. "You have to be able to draw birds and elk and make them on metal. I do it, but I'm not master grade yet."

"As I was trying to master the art of metal inlay, I did a small revolver. I ended up inlaying over half an ounce of fine silver in it. It took me three and half months of work if you work at 40 hours a week. It turned out really nice, I think. Even with my rates, I had to charge eight or nine thousand dollars. It was literally a third of a year," said Jim.

While there isn't a similar master certification for leatherwork, there is

a world debut held in Sheridan, Wyo. every year, said Heidi. "You can submit your work to be judged, and they have, I think, probably ten different categories. It certainly is a feather in your cap if you take first or second at that compe-tition."

Much of the work the Agners do is commissioned at gun shows. "We like doing custom work," said Heidi. "I get bored really easy. I can't be doing the same thing."

At a big annual show in Las Vegas, Heidi met the president of a company who takes Rugers and adapts them to make limited runs of a few hundred or thousand special-edition pieces.

"For the last four to five years, he'd come by and say, "We're going to do a project." He had me do a holster for the NRA Women's Forum Group. He's a great guy. I've done several projects for him," said Heidi.

In addition to their business work, Heidi has served on the Chamber of Commerce, and Jim serves on the Lincoln Hospital District Board. They also donate items they've made for local nonprofit auctions and fundraisers. The Agners hold a Federal Firearms License so that Jim can accept guns to engrave, which also allows them to do transfers for people who have won a gun in a raffle or online auction.

This year, the Agners hope to return to a more regular schedule, after the cancellation of so many gun shows last year due to COVID-19.

"We're hoping that we get back to some kind of normal," said Jim.

"That's our big thing, getting out to the gun shows and seeing what people do," added Heidi.