Family Reputation Rests On Rifles

A famous gunmaker once complimented Al Biesen as “the only SOB who can make a living at this job without putting his wife to work.”

But that hasn’t stopped the Spokane craftsman from putting his son and granddaughter to work.

Biesen, who is pushing 80, has invested 50 years to forge his name among the top in the art of custom gunmaking.

Since Al opened the tiny basement shop to his son, Roger, and most recently his granddaughter, Paula Biesen Malicki, the trio has become the only family gunmakers in the country who can do it all.

Al and Roger have mastered skills from barrel work to stock carving and customizing actions and components. Paula came aboard last year as the engraver, producing the inlays and designs that transform a classic rifle or shotgun into an art piece.

The addition of Paula was taken as seriously as recruiting a newcomer to a trapeze act. The change could not be allowed to produce a weak link.

The Biesens have always worked to a simple standard: “When the job is done,” Roger explained, “you’re not just sending out a rifle, it’s your reputation.”

A typical Biesen rifle costs $3,000-$8,000. One elegant model, detailed by master engraver Terry Wallace, sold for $120,000 at a Safari Club International auction in 1992.

“The workmanship wouldn’t be any different for you than it would be for the Prince of Iran,” Roger said. “Some customers are willing to pay us a little more to have something fancier than the next guy, but the craftsmanship is always the same.”

That’s a stiff standard for the newest member of the team, considering that Paula must add final touches to a rifle that already might include $5,000 of effort from her father and grandfather.

“My interest in art is sort of a fluke,” Paula said. “I wouldn’t have even taken an art class in high school if it hadn’t been for a scheduling error.”

That error gave North Central High School teachers a chance to recognize her talent and enter her work in art shows. Although she won many awards, the connection between art and the future didn’t click until years after her 1987 graduation.

“I had admired my father’s and grandfather’s work and was fortunate to see some of the finest examples of custom rifles in the world,” she said.

Her family encouraged her to apply her talent to engraving.

‘There were no guarantees,” she said. “This wasn’t one of those occasions where they could praise you because you were related. They have a reputation to maintain.

“Art training helps an engraver, but it doesn’t get you there,” she said, noting that she studied books and videos on the craft.

“At first, it was frustrating not to be able to engrave as well as I could draw,” she said. “It took four years to learn to cut the metal to match my mind’s eye.”

Not until she made that transition did she dare bring a sample of her work to her grandfather’s shop.

“They only had to look in their shop and compare my work to the best in the country,” she said.

Al and Roger saw the potential.

The ultimate critique, however, comes from customers, who are paying thousands of dollars for Paula’s embellishments. For example, a custom engraved gold portrait on a grip cap the size of a silver dollar adds $500 to the cost of a rifle.

Using a tool that’s essentially a surgically precise jackhammer, Paula engraves while looking through a microscope. Under magnification, the tool seems to work like a scoop in ice cream.

Many sportsmen want their favorite wildlife to adorn the firearm, along with scrollwork borders.

“Finally, we can do everything in one shop,” Roger said.

Despite his age, Al has the smooth, unwrinkled face of a man who’s spent most of his days in a basement workshop void of sunlight.

He began making guns as a hobby at the age of 15.

“I just plugged away,” he said. “I don’t know how to explain it, but all of a sudden, some years later, I just found myself as a craftsman.”

Biesen might never have been a famous name in guns if Al hadn’t written a letter to Jack O’Connor just after World War II. Al told the famous globetrotting hunter it was about time he had a “good” rifle.

O’Connor decided to take a chance on what he called “a brash young upstart.” The author and gun editor for Outdoor Life could have had guns made by any craftsman in the world. Yet after seeing that first “good” rifle, O’Connor commissioned Biesen to build about 35 rifles and shotguns during the next 20 years.

Word spread.

Nowadays, the Biesens build about 20 custom guns a year.

The checkered patterns Al handcarves into his gunstocks are a classic part of the Biesen craft.

“Checkering isn’t necessarily difficult if you have the time,” Roger said. “But you’re asking for trouble if you get in a hurry.”

Checkering is the term for the pattern of diamonds carved in the gripping areas of the stock. It’s just one of the many steps in creating a gun distinguished by absolute uniformity. The checkering often is scratched into prized hunks of English walnut worth $1,000.

Roger said he needs to lock himself in a room to maintain the concentration required for fine checkering.

Al does it as though he were buttering toast.

Al worked more than 45 years in the business before taking the time to build a custom rifle for himself.

“I did some work on it; Roger has his hand in it, and we got Paula involved,” Al said. “It might be the best rifle ever for that reason, and because it’s mine.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 photos (1 color)