The Gunsmith as an Artist

[Blackwater]

I have a friend who asked me to teach him how to tie flies. He's made his living all his life as a mechanic of one sort or anohter, and he was always one of the really great ones. For a number of years, he worked on Volkswagens, and was good enough that he had several people from as far away as nearly 1,000 miles bring their vehicles to him to solve problems or customize their engines. He was GOOD! He can tell you more about your engine just by listening to it than many young guys can with their computers. He knows what questions to ask to get the info he needs to explain the current status of the engine, and the knowledge to get it to where you want it to be.

When he asked me to teach him how to tie flies, I told him he should be really good at it very quickly because he'd always been an artist at heart. He looked at me like I had three heads, and told me I was crazy! I just smiled, and told him he WAS an artist and just had never realized it. I recognized it by the way he talked about how he did things. He was always wondering about why things worked as they did, and figuring out how to make them better. He also had a very deft and educated sense of touch, and had always, when he told me how to do something, described just how much pressure or force to use in doing everything. Then he looked at me like the light bulb was starting to glow inside his head.

And the capper was how quickly he took to tying flies. When he found out how easy it really is for anyone who just has a deft touch, and pays attention to what he's doing WHILE he's doing it, to tie good looking and effective flies, he was hooked! He's tied flies and jigs and given many away to friends and even strangers he's met when they got engaged in a conversation about fishing.

This little illustration just shows how many skilled workmen just don't think of themselves as true artists, even though they are. Most people think of artists as great painters or sculptors, but artists do all kinds of things, including work in wood and metal like gunsmiths. And there's a REASON why people with big money seek out the true artists in gunsmithing, and pay some very high prices for their work.

All the while, though, the true artists in gunsmithing without the big names and notoriety just keep trucking along, doing what they love and do so very, very well, and make enough to keep the family fed and clothed. These, IMO, are the true heroes of our world. Inlaying, engraving and a few other things you guys do are regarded as artistic, but the basic meat and potatoes type stuff generally isn't, but not being regarded as an art doesn't mean it's not, in reality. It IS a very definite art, and though many don't appreciate it as such has nothing whatsoever with the fact of the matter.

One great 'smith, and my friend, makes the best feeling and working stocks that I've ever handled. No two are alike, but each and every one I've ever handled, I got that "Wow! I could SHOOT this thing!" feeling. This doesn't come about easily or every day, and is the result of a man with the heart of an artist, the mentality of an engineer, the hands of a surgeon, and the mind of a true artist. He's always thinking about what he's doing, and when he's not working, and doesn't have any necessity to do, he's thinking about what he might do, and how it'd work. If that's not how artists work, I'll eat your hat with no salt!

The only gunsmiths that are regularly recognized as artists are the old craftsmen who made those wonderful and beautiful muzzleloaders of long ago now. Like most artists, they're not really appreciated until after they're dead! So, I just thought it appropriate to make this post, and give at least a little tip of the hat to you guys. Your work IS appreciated by some of us, even if we're just a small portion of the folks you deal with. What you do is, if one simply thinks about it, amazing. You need to know what size hammer to use and just how to swing it to get many things done, and done right. There are thousands of "little things" that go to make up your talents, and I just thought it appropriate to let you all know that there are still those among us who really appreciate the things you do, your talents, and the great work you do.

Even my country boy/mechanic buddy who's tying great flies now has finally come to realize that he IS, in fact, an artist. His medium in which he's worked just wasn't oil paints or the sculptor's hammer and chisel. IMO, the gunsmith is the consumate artist in our world today, simply because what you do has such real utility and CAN in fact enable us to survive any sort of hazardous situations we might encounter. And THAT, my gunsmithing friends, is no small thing! Thanks, and a tip of the hat to you all. You merit that and so much more.

[MrWolf]

Great realization and summary. I agree with you.

[country gent]

A good gunsmith is a true old school craftsman who does things to be proud of and isnt finished until hes willing to sighn his name to the job. Blending wood metal and other materials into a working piece that balance feels good and does just what it is supposed to. Ussually a gunsmith isnt fully recognized until hes on the downward end of his carreer or gone. Artist they are craftsman they are and its the pride in thier work that sets them apart. The attention to details and making each one right and pleasing to the eye or hand.

[waksupi]

An artist never considers any of his work perfect. That's why they keep trying.

[paul h]

Great write up!

I'd say some gunsmiths are artists, many are craftsman, and some should be buggy whipped for what the results are of them messing with guns.

I have a friend who is a true artist with race cars. The streamliner we built together that got him in the 300 mph club.

http://www.jackcostella.com/images/pictures/jack_bonneville.jpg

He's a true artist with the artistic temperament to boot.

[Blackwater]

Paul, I was thinking of some of the parts changers of today who call themselves "gunsmiths" today. It's really hard to find a really good 'smith. Ackley trained boys are getting long in the tooth, and all I've encountered that he taught were pretty darned good. Each had his talents and areas they preferred to work in, but whatever that area was, they've been about as uniformly good as we humans can be. Some of the stories of their schooling are both funny and interesting, and I doubt many kids today would respond well to his type of instruction. From what I've been told, only those who really enjoyed a challenge did well in his school, and that kind'a separates the wheat from the chaff at the starting gate.

There's so little real care and attention given to work these days, that it just prompted me to make this post. I've always been intrigued by guns, and shooting, and one can't be like that and not get into the gunsmithing/customizing/accurizing end of it, at least as a serious hobby. I never had a lathe or mill, but would have loved to. Hand work takes longer, but if you have a goal in mind, it's a labor of love and determination. If I'd been smarter, I'd have been one of Ackley's students too, but .... unfortunately, that realization came way too late in life. I love it when you guys post about some project you've done that's really original and off the beaten path. Keep it up. There are still some out here who love that stuff, and appreciate the ingenuity you guys use as a matter of course to meet the constant barrage of challenges you face. It's always inspiring, and keeps me thinking and dreaming. Thanks. It matters.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I don't believe a worthwhile work of art is ever without important technical knowledge, or a worthwhile work of technology ever without art. My Saudi students once asked me "Teacher, what is art?", and though it was on the tip of my tongue to say the remaining week of the semester wouldn't answer that, it occurred to me that if two people pointed the same camera at the same person or object, you would get the same picture. But if they were using a more artistic medium and style, one artist would produce a picture in which the subject looks kind, another one in which he looks thoughtful or strong, and so on. The artist produces a picture which is partly of himself.

In the Elizabethan Age the playwrights, artists, navigators, shipbuilders, artillerymen, surgeons economists etc. could talk and contribute opinions of value to the others. Leonardo da Vinci probably invented the wheel-lock and perhaps the application of a coilspring to firearms, though I always imagine Mrs. Leonardo telling him to give all that engineering a rest and get back to that woman with the silly smirk, because it was the painting that paid the bills. When I studied a little psychology in 1968-69, it was like that. But as time passed, the psychologists got hold of it, and fenced it around with their own layman-excluding mysteries - a bit like religion really.

I've got Blackie's "Popular Encyclopaedia" of 1876 and Paul du Chaillu's "The Viking Age" ( by the French-American gorilla hunter, which doesn't go down too well nowadays, although I don't believe he thought they would mind.) Both are heavily illustrated with engravings, and neither shows the "two cultures" attitude which is so common nowadays. The encyclopaedia takes for granted that the reader should want to know both about art and literature, and about the technology and science of a technological age. Nowadays the partisans of those sides of human knowledge would despise each other.

[Love Life]

Paul, I was thinking of some of the parts changers of today who call themselves "gunsmiths" today. It's really hard to find a really good 'smith. Ackley trained boys are getting long in the tooth, and all I've encountered that he taught were pretty darned good. Each had his talents and areas they preferred to work in, but whatever that area was, they've been about as uniformly good as we humans can be. Some of the stories of their schooling are both funny and interesting, and I doubt many kids today would respond well to his type of instruction. From what I've been told, only those who really enjoyed a challenge did well in his school, and that kind'a separates the wheat from the chaff at the starting gate.

There's so little real care and attention given to work these days, that it just prompted me to make this post. I've always been intrigued by guns, and shooting, and one can't be like that and not get into the gunsmithing/customizing/accurizing end of it, at least as a serious hobby. I never had a lathe or mill, but would have loved to. Hand work takes longer, but if you have a goal in mind, it's a labor of love and determination. If I'd been smarter, I'd have been one of Ackley's students too, but .... unfortunately, that realization came way too late in life. I love it when you guys post about some project you've done that's really original and off the beaten path. Keep it up. There are still some out here who love that stuff, and appreciate the ingenuity you guys use as a matter of course to meet the constant barrage of challenges you face. It's always inspiring, and keeps me thinking and dreaming. Thanks. It matters.

You usually can separate the wheat from the chaff with the pricing and wait time. Haha!!

There are some very good gunsmiths around, and they have waiting lists as long as my leg, and their prices reflect as well.

There are probably 10X the amount of parts changers, and their prices are cheap-ish.

The smallish number of top gunsmiths, along with the cost of shipping and long waits, has really inspired/forced me to start doing many things on my own. It's not cheap or fast...and fraught with peril. Just one or two file strokes can make the difference, hehehe.

My hat is off to those artists who can take a box of steel and wood parts, and make something that is nice to the eye, completely functional, and meets or exceeds your expectations. Same for those who work in the medium of fiberglass stocks and cerakote, lol.

[fouronesix]

You might think you've gone to the wrong gunsmith for a custom rifle build if you see these on his wall………... or not :)

[Alexn20]

I completely agree with you Blackwater. The Old Timers who mastered their craft are slowly dying off. One specific person I knew very well was a farrier close to me as a child and my youth. He knew how to work steel like nobody I have seen since. A TRUE artist indeed. You instantly knew it was Howard just by hearing his rhythm on the anvil. May he rest in peace. He is still very close to my heart. I wish I had more time with him to learn from his lifetime of knowledge:
155177

Sorry to drift off topic a bit but your post reminded me of him.

Relating back to gunsmiths, I saw the show Gunsmith of Williamsburg on PBS a few weeks ago. If you havent seen it I suggest you take an hour to watch it. I'm always amazed by the ingenuity and dedication of individuals that master their craft:

I found Gunsmith of Williamsburg on YouTube. Give it a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lui6uNPcRPA

[Ballistics in Scotland]

155180

Here I am with a little less grey than nowadays, in front of one of our drystone dykes which John Brown of Kansas admired so much. If most of us built a wall like that, it would last a decade or two. But the few men who still repair them professionally can recognize the work of individual craftsmen who died, in some cases, hundreds of years ago, just from the way the stones are chosen and locked together. Something like that ought to come into deciding whether something is art. But I don't think titanium or white-line spacers would do it.

[Blackwater]

Good insights, and Alex, you weren't off topic at all. You can't discuss art without getting into the artists. One of my most valued friends is a gunsmith who has been an alcoholic all his life. He was one wild and crazy guy when younger, but liver disease humbled him tremendously. The docs said it was probably more the solvents he almost bathed in so often in the aerospace insustry. He was head honcho of a dept., and insisted those under him wear all the safety stuff when dealing with the chemicals they used, but when HE did it, he abandoned all that and just dived in with both arms up to his armpits frequently.

Anyway, he was supposed to have been dead 20+ years ago, but he's still hobbling along, despite the liver thing and a really bad accident on his moped that nearly cost him his life. He died twice in the OR but was shocked back to life again. He's barely here, walks like he's besotted, and talks with difficulty due to a smallish stroke that still left its mark, and he does his gunsmithing every day, and it's awesome, even now.

His stocks are as good as stocks get, in spite of these challenges, and he doesn't get that big a price for what he does for lack of a name and because unless you know him and his work, you don't really expect much from a man that presents himself like Jack does. And he's just happy to still be able to work on guns because it simply makes him happy. If nobody in the whole world understood what he does and why he does it that way, it'd still mean something poignant to him, and that's what matters most to him.

I think gunsmithing is a lot like the old truism about musicians. It's said that if you WANT to be a musician, it'll be a life fraught with all manner of disappointment, failure and frustration. On the other hand, though, if you HAVE to be a musician, it's the only path that'll ever make you happy, no matter what happens. Substitute your favorite art for the word "musician" and it still holds true, and the reason it still holds true is simply that all are true artists.

BinS's comment about the interrelationship between art and science is VERY true, too. The old Dutch master painters and Divinci and many others were as much draftsmen as they were painters. Ratio and proportion is something they use as an integral and very crucial part of their art. Things just mean different things according to how they're depicted, and the ratios involved.

In a society where most things are, and are considered "disposable," true artists get less and less appreciation, but they're STILL artists, and HAVE to do what they do just to be happy. So, they take what they can get along the way while they ply their muse. It's the only thing that makes them satisfied.

It's a shame that more folks today don't appreciate it. Simply learning to appreciate what real artists do and make would make their lives so much richer and satisfying! But today, they're in too big a hurry to stop and smell the roses, so they often don't, but a shrewd 'smith can still get along in spite of all that because they break the toys they have, and NEED you. You just have to listen to all the carping about your prices, but I think gunsmiths of all ages have faced that one. It's a big part of the reason old gunsmiths often seem to be grumpy all the time! They understand what very few do, and so, they have few really sypatico friends to talk to who can fully understand what they say.

It's a tough life, but the only one that'll ever really be satisfying for those who have it in them. You guys who do it for a living have to be tough, and sooner or later have to learn how to "reason" with people so they can understand you. Good luck with THAT these days! Your customers always seem to want custom work at Wal Mart prices, and if they wanted it tomorrow, they'd wait until tomorrow to have brung it in. Just take it and fix it, and they've GOT to have it back in 5 minutes because they've got an appointment. HAR! I bet every one of you have had that one happen, right?

And LL, you and I seem to be much alike in how we got into working on our own guns, and I'm sure you do stuff for your buddies, too. I could never afford the good stuff or good smiths, so the ONLY way to have the stuff I wanted was to start doing it myself. And the way to do that, at first, is just to wade into it all. I think I was 13 when I took my old Stevens 311 down totally. Got it cleaned up, did a little very light polishing and deburring, and finally got it all back together, and it seemed to work. I was really proud of myself. No manuals or info to go by, just look at it and figure it out. Then I took it out to hunt with, and every time I pulled either trigger, it doubled on me!

That was humbling, and taught me that there's more to things than always appears from a cursory glance, and HOW one fits things together makes a HUGE difference. That was the beginning of my appreciation for, and search for my own, gunsmithing skills. I never had a lathe or mill, or the time to devote to them, but I've done most things that can be done with simple hand tools, and it's been very satisfying to do the work, and when approriate, to show it off a little. But the REAL smiths are still a source of wonderment for me. Wood and steel are, I think, more difficult mediums to work in than most others. They take a greater variety of real skills and knowledge and understanding than most mediums of expression, but that's what makes me want to own a truly fine sporter more than I would a great masters' painting.

I love great art, and once saw a Rembrandt face to face, and it was even more awesome than I'd anticipated, but I spent a full half a day in the Smithsonian with the old original muzzleloaders they had there. The longer you look at them, the more of the little, subtle things you notice, and the more you appreciate the knowledge, skills and judgments they had, and the things they created from pretty much bare ingredients of iron, wood and brass. Just flat amazing, and worthy of a LOT more appreciation and respect than gunsmiths will EVER get. And yet, you keep doing it in spite of all that.

Just thought you'd appreciate that there are still some out here who realize what it is that you do, and really DO appreciate it, even if some of us can't afford your best stuff. Never lower your prices, though. Just find better customers.