I've discovered that blisters come in more than one fashion. I got my first grade. Needless to say, I wasn't super thrilled with the grade. I did better than quite a few, but not as well as I would have liked. The grading seems to be quite stiff at school, but I can deal with that. I started a new project yesterday and I've already changed how I do things, I'm much more deliberate. I guess part of that is because of the learning curve, and part is just a chang in perspective. The project I started yesterday is a 1911 bushing wrench. Bushing wrenches are quite common and can typically be purchased for under $10, but again, the point of making a wrench by hand is not the end product, but what is gained in experience while making the product.
 

The silver part here is the bushing. It is a necessary part of the 1911 pistol as it keeps the slide/barrel assembly together during firing and can often be quite tight (especially on high-end pistols) which is where the wrench comes in.

 

 

Unfortunately, with the bushing wrench, I've already wasted a few hours simply by overthinking the project. It was after talking with two of my instructors that I elected to stick with the KISS principle. It didn't really need to be super fancy anyway, I've already got several bushing wrenches.

Happily, I completed another project today. My practice barrel (which was discussed in Just the Basics) is finally done. I unfortunately went over on hours, but according to our grading criteria, there shouldn't be a deduction for going over time. The project was supposed to take 20 hours, I finally got it done right under 23. Two hours of that time was spent standing around today waiting for the hot bluing tanks to heat up.

The process of bluing that we use starts with a hot soap bath to clean the metal one last time followed by a hot rinse (both tanks are 150 degrees). From there, the metal parts go to a cold bath for roughly 10 seconds, then into the hot salts (270-275 degrees at this elevation). The parts needed to sit in the bluing salts for about half an hour. From there, the get rinsed in the cold bath briefly, then placed into a boil-out tank. The boiling tank helps to remove all of the salts from the metal and took about 10 minutes. For something more complex, the times would be longer for the salts and boil out tanks. From the boil out tank, the metal parts get placed in a water displacing oil bath (NOT WD-40). After five minutes there, we then wipe down the barrel with a gun cleaning solvent to remove the oil from the oil bath, dry the part with a clean cloth, then apply a firearms appropriate oil to the finish to protect it.

Sorry for the blurry photos.

The bluing tank set up.

 

 



 

My polished barrel.

 

Barrels in the bluing salts.

 

My blued barrel.

 

 

 

Sorry the pictures are so small. I'll have to see if I can change the size later.

 

 

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.

The Beginning.

Before I get too far into this, i want to thank my wife for allowing me to do what I do. She has been super supportive of me and my dreams. I hope that I can someday do the same for her.

The Back Story

 Tinkering has been a lifelong pastime for me. I can remember a lot of different toys that I had as a child, however the only memories I have of them is of toys in many pieces. Specifically R/C cars. I had to find out how they worked. When I was introduced to shooting over 25 years ago, fortunately, nobody let me "tinker" with guns. But my interest had been piqued. The curiosity I have for how things work has always been there and it wasn't until I was roughly 10 years old that my tinkering met firearms and grew from there. ***Quick PSA: PARENTS! If you have guns in the house, please keep them in a safe. Children WILL find them and children WILL play with them. I know from experience!*** 

After nearly 9 years in the military, I was fortunate enough to get a job at a gun shop in Columbus, Ga where my gun related enjoyment and intrigue continued to grow. My boss was very encouraging of my desire to go to school for gunsmithing and helped me out by growing my knowledge base substantially. 

First day of school:

Didn't sleep very well last night mostly due to nerves. The hour and forty five minute drive was pretty nerve wracking as well. The first words that were spoken to me and my 12 classmates were not words that I had expected to hear at a gunsmithing school. "How do you define art?" The dean of the program explained that prior to "art" becoming paintings and sculptures, art is what the artifacts of society were. Products, items made by craftsmen. Artisans. He went on to explain that this is out goal. To be craftsmen capable of creating works of art. The anxiety that I had been experiencing was gone, but it had been replaced by a different variety of anxiety. I have never been "artistic". I'm doing well to match my clothes appropriately for going in public. How am I going to take something that I see as very cold and mechanical and turn it into a piece of art? I don't doubt that I have the ability; I am, after all, someone that won't buy certain guns because they have no soul or feeling behind them. Hopefully, the passion that I have for guns will marry with my drive to produce high quality, skillfully made firearms, and turn to works of art in my hands.