Just the Basics

Two weeks down. Fifty-eight to go! Not that I'm counting down, but for me (and some of my classmates) this school is more or less just one more box to be checked. Not that it's insignificant, but in the fact that it is not the end goal. It is definitely something that we were all excited to start, some of us having waited almost two years to get in. I personally waited over a year. I enjoy the fact that while it is "just a box to check", this box will give me the basic skills and knowledge that I need to do what I want, provided I put into it everything that I can. Because this school is directly inline with what I want to do, putting 100% of myself into it is easy! Most of the time. For some reason, Thursdays seem to be the bane of my existence. Last Thursday and this Thursday had me feeling like I was running headlong into walls repeatedly with no different outcome.

The program I'm in starts out (rightly so) with the basics. The first two real projects we have are a forend wrench for a Winchester Model 12 shotgun (one of the more prolific sporting arms of the last century) that we form with hand tools from a flat piece of stock. The second project is an old beat up rifle barrel that has been dragged across pavement and concrete, hit against brick walls, etc. Our goal with that is to get all of the dings, scrapes and scratches out with hand files and sand paper, then polish and buff the barrel to what is known as a "matchless" finish in the firearm industry. Essentially, it is a mirror like finish with a high luster. Finally, the barrel will be blued using a hot caustic salt bluing process (more on that later).

So for the past two Thursdays, each one of these projects managed to frustrate me. Last week, while filing the wrench to its final shape, it occurred to me that I had accidentally removed a radius that needed to be there. So I had to start over. I was so frustrated, I ended up rushing things with the second wrench and did some things out of order, however it was a recoverable error. This week, the barrel has been frustrating me. When polishing metal to such a high shine, it really uncovers a lot of the "sins" that more coarse finishes can hide. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of repetition and a lot of tweaking of techniques to get things right. That wasn't happening today. But I got it to the point where after a weekend away, I should be able to knock it out in a few hours on Monday.

(The Model 12 wrench layout (not mine)L, my first one in the middle and the current one R)

I've read some reviews of my school written by past students, and some seemed to think that the basics section was a waste of time. I feel like the basics section is the foundation of all that a real gunsmith is and does. I'm happy to have the opportunity to learn from more experienced gunsmiths. And I love every minute of it.