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Posted: 12/11/2010 12:36:16 PM EDT
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Today at the range I met & talked with an very old Watch Maker, when I told him I worked in a Clock shop he then produce a very small, one shot .22 short derringer type pistol, complete with little leather holster.
I was floored at the quality & craftsmanship put into this little piece, everything, including the top break had engraving on it. Just when I thought I was pretty good at restoration & repair of Clocks I got served a piece of Humble pie today. You never know what these older guys are gonna show you, it pays to let them run the conversation. 
Best advice if you ever run into any Seniors at the range,"Keep your mouth shut & see what they have to say", you never know what surprise you may be in store for. |
I are a Master watchmaker retired.
Also a gunsmith who specialized in Colt double action revolver work for customers and as a trade shop for other gunsmiths. I also did some very high end custom holster work. One of the other guys in the store built black powder rifles at a level as good as any of the custom rifles you see the NRA presenting VIP's. He built only for himself, or else he'd be famous. His rifles were usually swamped barrel flinters. A "swamped" barrel is an octagon barrel that tapers down about 2/3's of the way then tapers back up toward the muzzle. Try inletting that into a thin maple stock. He hand engraved his hand made patch boxes and in general turned out museum quality rifles. Strangely, try as he might, he was a lousy shot with them. He was a buck skinner and hit a lot of black powder shoots. He got offers to buy one of his rifles up in the many thousands of dollars. He never won anything because of just bad shooting. Watchmakers often make good gunsmiths, because while most gunsmith trainees have difficulty learning how to work on small gun parts and the precision required, to a watchmaker even the tiniest gun part or working surface is huge. Without any real difficulty, I taught myself how to do factory level work on Colt revolvers. This was possible, because after you've been inside a chronograph or other complicated type watch, a gun is easy, as long as you understand the difference between working on a time piece and a gun. However, while most good gunsmiths are good machinists, not all good machinists are good gunsmiths. Some master machinists are absolute terrible gunsmiths. I've seen some horrible gun work, and a few really horrible guns built by good machinists. There's a difference between good watch or machine work and gun work. You have to understand the difference. I've also seen a few guns butchered by good watchmakers. Mind set is everything. |
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I've worked on Granfather Clocks, Cuckoo, Clocks, Hour/ Half Hour movements & even a couple pocket watches (PITA!!)
The guy training me as been doing it for 35 years & can smell the problem before the owner even puts the case on the bench, pretty amazing to watch him work on & time an Atmos clock. I hate to say it but I think I love the old time pieces more than my bang sticks, don't get me wrong I love my AR & all things tacticool. But after working on an early Marling lever action I think my love affair has begun to shift a little. I wish I knew how to post pics, writing about it does no justice. 
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Did you hear what the watchmaker said when he first saw a 1/4-20 tap?
"Didn't know they made em that big." If you want to read an excelent book on the subject get this. This is the engrossing story of the clockmaker, John "Longitude" Harrison, who solved the problem that Newton and Galileo had failed to conquer, yet claimed only half the promised rich reward. |
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An old watchmaker joke:
An American watch company spent millions developing a new, super small hair spring for a watch. It was billed as the tiniest spring ever made. They sent it to the Swiss watch institute to show them how miniaturization was done. The Swiss sent the spring back with no letter. After looking at the spring under a powerful microscope, they found a tiny hole the Swiss had drilled through the spring. One more: Sometimes a watchmaker will wear a customers watch for a day or so to try to identify a mystery problem. When asked why he's wearing two watches, he replies: "Time got good, so I decided to hire on a couple of extra hands". |
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