In a recent post Hanshi and I batted around the idea , of a START HERE section for new builders. After giving it some thought , I realized that in our discussions on pertinent skills , we might have overlooked , what I have come to believe COULD be one of the MOST helpful thing any body could do starting out , LOOK AT AND HANDLE ORIGINALS!!!!! I fully understand that for various reasons , some folks just can`t make it happen but, for anyone who can , I really think it is the BEST thing you could do. Like most everyone on this site , when I started there was no CLA show ,or CLA for that matter. I looked at books and read every thing I could find! I had fooled with CVAs and TCs with friends . When I met Ron Ehlert and saw his rifles , I was completely blown away!! I had never seen a REAL Flintlock rifle , and I HAD to have one. After quite a few years of building rifles , I went to the CLA show and was dumbfounded at how different the originals were from what I was building . I was mostly over exaggerating features, huge cheekpieces , big thick patchbox lids, carving too high , incise carving you could take shelter in, just everything that could be screwed up is what I was doing. I was looking at pictures in books and doing the best I could , but , the black and white pictures made some of the features look bolder than they actually were. I saw original rifles that I had tried to copy from books , and EVERY time the original was, sleeker , slimmer and more graceful ,than my rendition. I would have never known this if I had not got to see the original . I guess this is a long winded way of saying, books, videos , and all the other , learning aids we have available are great , but I don`t think anything can beat looking at the genuine article. It is SUPER helpful when there is a large group of skilled artisans , that can tell you how some of these features were produced. If possible GO TO THE CLA!!! JMHO Nate
