Dolf Goldsmith passed away. He was a great asset to the machine gun community and a prolific author of things that shoot fast.

I first met Dolf at a small Texas MG shoot when Dan brought him. First thing I was told was to make sure there are no rocks near your gun that he can use as a hammer to work on your gun. I thought this was a joke until I saw it in person.

That day he was running his own Maxim that his mother got for supporting the WWI war effort. Not many left in this world can say they owned and shot a WWI machine gun given to their family by the government. He was using Browning belts just to prove that it could be done in a Maxim.

It was a great day listening to Dolf's stories. He was gracious enough to sign my stack of his books and even left some Maxim oily finger prints in them.

If you never met him you really missed out. He will be missed.

That sucks....He held on for a long time.
I have one of his books signed by him.  One of my dad's best friends was his brother-in-law and he is in the credits in several of his books as the photographer.   Super great guy.

If I’m not mistaken, Ian from forgotten weapons years ago, did a video with him

Saw this over at 1919a4.com and Machinegunboards earlier .....

There is a lot of knowledge out there that you can't access with a Google search ...... and those that possess it are getting up there in years.

Take the time to talk to, and learn from guys like him, because one day you won't be able to

SAR did a great interview with him in 2007

Interview with Dolf Goldsmith: Part I:
http://archive.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticles=125

Interview with Dolf Goldsmith: Part II:
http://archive.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticles=123

Excellent read — thanks for posting this.

Seems like the last couple of years some really great people in the firearm industry has passed away, especially in the MG community..
One can hope that they passed their stories on for following generations.

I believe it's the SAR article quoted above wherein he chronicles the salvage of the scrapped MGs.  It's a great story for sure.

I can't say I knew him, but met him briefly via an intermediate friend at this past SAR West show in Phoenix. He was obviously up in years, but had apparently demanded to go to the big MG show. I hope I can hang onto the hobby that long.