Designer firearms by gun sisters woo customers at Adihex

The Italian sisters have been showcasing the family made-guns at the Adihex for the past ten years.

Three Italian sisters who are running a firearms company are going great guns at the Abu Dhabi International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition (Adihex) this year.
Barbara Fausti, Elena Fausti and Giovanna Fausti co-own Fausti, the company that makes hand-engraved rifles. The three women, popularly known as the 'gun sisters', took over the management of their father's rifles company after his retirement in the early 1990s.
Their father Stefano Fausti had started the company back in 1948, just after Second World War had ended. He was assembling guns, model 'external hammer' only with the help of a chisel and fine papers. 
Stefano's unique and reliable shotguns won the first customers and Italian fans and then drew the attention of admirers in Europe before finally getting to hunters and collectors in America and the Middle East.
The Italian sisters have been showcasing the family made-guns famous for their high craftsmanship and beautiful engravings at the Adihex for the past ten years.
"Every year, we exhibit something new in Abu Dhabi. This time, we have brought a new and unique rifle 'Senator' with a tiger Rubin eyes' picture on it," Barbara one of the sisters told Khaleej Times at the exhibition on Thursday.
"This is a new and unique handmade gun with a side lock. It was designed by a professional Italian artist and it's a very good rifle for both hunting and shooting."
She said their handmade guns are unique because they are entirely custom-built, engraved and signed by one of the best Italian engravers. "In every model, there is always a particular sign and many customers fall in love with our firearms at first sight because of their unique designs," said Barbara.
Staff at Fausti assemble, stock and finish the shotguns with great care and passion entirely by hand. "We create the weapons by hands only and with passion and attention. It's only by hand that one can make a true work of art. Our guns are designed, produced and tested to last and be handed down from generation to generation," she said.
Barbara said the three sisters are so passionate of their inherited job of making guns. "We love the job of making guns. It was the work of our dad and we learned it from him," she said.
"We are now known as women gun makers by many people." 
To create a rifle at Fausti, according to Barbara, it involves 90 stages of different machine work and anything between 300 and over 700 hours of engraving.
New types of steel and modern aluminum machinery combined allows Fausti to produce interchangeable metal components, while sophisticated quality-control systems guarantee the reliability of their final products.
Fausti's guns also have a specific character that distinguishes them from anything else available on the market, according to the sisters. 
"Our unique kind of modern sporting guns are developed in a range of models capable of covering all price and market ranges and are, even those models subjected to highly mechanised processes, not anonymous mass-production pieces," said the sisters. 
From a small laboratory back in the 1940s, the firm's premises in Italy now stretches over 4,000 square metres with more than 40 workers including specialised craftmen.
The Fausti sisters said they use fewer components in making their shotguns meaning less chance of breakage and greater ease of use and maintenance. A Fausti shotgun also undergoes 250 quality checks during the production cycle for each shotgun which provides a good idea of Fausti's philosophy.
ismail@khaleejtimes.com
 
 

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