Question for any gunmakers

[Acer Saccharum]

Brookie, I'm on the long side of 61. Will I be building in twenty years? Will I be a master by then?

Will I even care?

To me, it's most important to enjoy what you're doing. If I'm building a chicken coup or a dogsled, I want to be having fun. This gunbuilding rocks my world. As soon as it doesn't, I'm quitting.

Another thought: 'once I'm really good at this I'll have fun'. You might get there and hate what you're doing.

To many people I have heard say 'Once I retire, I'm going to do this and that', and the day never comes. Do it now. Whatever floats your boat, do it now. Live your life with a flame. If you burn up, well, good; you went out with a bang.

[brooktrout]

Funny how this rolls around.  bama states it as I see it in the beginning.  How one gets into it and what might be called the early years.  Acer and bama take it to the "master" years.  Or at least well beyond being a beginner or novice.

But Acer, were you building at 41?  And I do enjoy everything I do.  But not sure that gun making can be added to the list.  Almost too many things on it already!  A combination of "fun stuff" and life responsibilities.

[Acer Saccharum]

I started at 17, and I made some really awful rifles. I then took some years off, had three kids, and got back into building. My skills improved, but I had never studied an original gun, didn't have RCA books, didn't know about Dixon's or the ALR.

Once I had gained some exposure to historical resources, learned about the ALR, gained tips and tricks from builders, I really felt like I had something I could dig my teeth into.

[Meteorman]

Hard to put down the fly rod and take up something else.

Keep that fly rod handy Brookie.
I've built some guns, some were even almost passable, and I fish.
Two different thrills.
Gun building is cool, but watching that brook trout you just released arc back into the current is a different kind of cool.
/mike millard

[brooktrout]

Fly fishing AND gun maker.  What a combination.  The knees are not being so cooperative as they once were thus those high hard to get to mountain brook streams are pretty much a thing of the past.  That's part of the dilemma of a "new activity" like gun making might be.  Time (age) imposes many unwelcome limitations on us.  Just wait.  If your are not getting peeks at it now, you will one day.  It's not my choice but it's a reality.  Checked out your web site.  Nice fish!  Nice guns.  Wish I would have been able to fish all those places.  Have a few friends who come from the Keystone state.  They are always telling me stories about some of your waters.  But some of the stories tell of hoards of people and problematic access issues from land owners.  I would rather fish alone, catching nothing that fish with a crowd and land dozens of "big ones".  But the subject is guns so I'll stick to it.  What your current project in process? 

[Tom Currie]

Along with Mike Brooks I like working in the Eric Kettenburg mindset about building what's next in line, with a little room for creativity.

I also agree with Acer on enjoy what you like to do now. No matter how busy life is, work..etc, I manage time to do some things that I enjoy doing like building a single gun a year and taking out to Dixon's with me. I've seen enough in my day also to know there's no gaurantee on those " Golden years" .

[Habu]

Good grief!  In 20 years I'll be on the edge of 90!  How many 90 year old builders are there! 

In 20 years, if you don't build rifles, how old will you be?

[Acer Saccharum]

Better get started!

[Ryan McNabb]

It all boils down to which direction do you want to take your work.  This will be a calculation based on what you personally are talented enough to accomplish and where that intersects with what the market will support.  If you build only for fun, then you do what you like, and it' a moot point.  If you work in the trade, there are trends that you can either participate in, or not.  John Bivins developed his own signature style.  So does Hershel House.  Both set off trends with dozens of makers trying to emulate their work, with more or less success.  Men like David Dodds adhered closely to an authentic interpretation of a specific region and period.  When I was building for a living, people just used RCA like the Sears catalog, and ordered copies of rifles from it.  That worked for me because I was only interested in original work, period.  Lots of other people were busy doing other kinds of work for other clients.

In the words of a friend of mine, "You can DO anything you want.  But what do you want to ACCOMPLISH."  I will say that trying to make a living at it REALLY changes your outlook and how you view art, work, the universe, everything.  Ask Frank House about the romance of pushing a file for ten hours a day, he has some good come backs.   

[Eric Kettenburg]

...I'm on the long side of 61...

Dude, you just BLEW...  MY... FREAKIN'... MIND!!!!

I thought you were maybe 4 or 5 years older than me.

Well now I guess it doesn't matter if that crackle glaze kills you or not because you're already just plain decrepit.

Sorry, carry on.