If you could go to.....

[Intheshop]

Have toured a few custom guitar builders.And other than making parts for them once N awhile,have little over zero interest.BUT,that wasn't the purpose for touring.I was looking at their shops with an acute OSHA eye.Not for anything other that what we could improve on in our place.Amongst other,slightly more clandestine notions.Wood storage,product flow,intriguing fixture design,machine setups....

Always prefaced the visits assuring them "I don't build guitars".

Now,about the only thing in the firearms field for me would be the finishing depts. of high end,probably Italian but certainly not limited to,shotguns.And have zero interest in "oil" finishes.Final finish on wood to metal fit,checkering,prepping wood for finish,polishing,grading and QC.

Maybe throw in a little time travel and visit late 19th,early 20th century English builders,but that would be to study architecture.The buildings on a nut N bolt aspect,and their showrooms.

 

[John]

I would not mind a few weekends with Harvey Donaldson though he was not a classic producer of guns. We know a lot but I believe a lot has been passed over.

 

[Bret4207]

If we can time travel? Harry Popes shop, George Schoyens shop, Phil Sharpes shop, Parker Ackleys shop, etc. No time travel? Turnbulls shop, no doubt on that one.

 

[fiver]

well I can describe Parkers shop pretty well.
it was much the same as Dick Casull's place a few years back.
old equipment and people working at that equipment.
think of a pretty decent Garage where your car got worked on back in the 70's but with the smell of cutting oil and metal chips.
mostly barrels being pulled and re-chambered or new ones being put on, receivers being faced off, some filing on a bench over there.
the phone ringing from time to time.
guns sitting on a rack along one wall with tags hanging from the trigger guard flowing to the other side of the shop where they were moved to the rear of the shop for packaging and shipping.
the front of the building was plain yellow brick 1 [tall] story high and the entrance led into a little office type setting with a bathroom and another office off to the side and a door which lead out to the production area.
it was like a small strip mall only for industrial use, where the customer parked out front and the workers smoked out back on their lunch breaks.

almost all of the 'book' stuff took place in a back room by the shipping area and out in the fields west of town.

 

[Brad]

The interesting stuff Ackley did wasn't so much for others but rather what he did for his own knowledge. Same as Casull and many others. Once the concept was in production it wasn't near as interesting as when it was between inception and production. The testing by trial and error is where the interest lies for me.

 

[Pistolero]

Thinking some more, I'd have to say Holland & Holland or one of the other "best quality" Brit rifle makers in the
1920s.

Bill

 

[JSH]

In John Linebaugh's shirt pocket on a project start to finish.