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- Dec 19, 2002
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As a living history museum,Conner Prairie holds an annual Gun Making Fair and brings in well known gun makers to demonstrate and to teach. This year we had Lee Lapin demonstrate and teach making powder horns. Lee is a member of the Horners' Guild and his work has been featured in both Muzzle Blasts (NMLRA) and Muzzle Loader. Lally House (Frank House) was there again this year to teach porquipine quillwork. That was very popular with the Native Americans until it was replaced (in part) by bead work. Ken Scott demonstrated making hunting bags and also taught a class. You walk away with a $300 bag when you're finished. Nathan Allen and Mel (the big guy) and Hershel House demonstrated blacksmithing. All are accomplished but Nathan (little guy) and Mel are both professionals blacksmiths. Ron Boren demonstrated several finishing techniques while Jim Klein and John Westin demonstrated assembling a rifle. Jane Pigeon and Sue Payne did fingerweaving (learn to make your own straps instead of buying them from sutlers). Jim Chambers also assembled a kit gun. Finally, we have John Schippers who did engraving.
I took John's class this year and he brought out huge wood models of engraving bits to show us what our bits should look like. John is largely self taught and did his first "engraving" by stamping and filing the rough edges. His first 15 rifles were done in this manner until he went to a gunshow in Ohio and saw a Filipino do real engraving. John doesn't speak Tagalog and the Filipino didn't speak English. Still, John stood by and watched in fascination for three days. He began to experiment and after 50 years is an accomplished engraver (who is still learning).
John's technique is not that which you will find in the books. Instead of engraving away from him, John holds the graver towards himself and chases it inwards. He states it gives him a better view of what he is trying to do than if he did it the other way. Think of using a wood chisel but in reverse. Unlike a wood chisel, you're not going to impale yourself and have a fountain of blood.
John points out that engraving is basically two lines: straight and curve. All floral, recocco, wildlife designs are based on those two lines and if you can master engraving those two lines, you can engrave. Not surprisingly, we spent the first hours learning how to hold our gravers and to tap out straight and curved lines. Another exercise was to close our eyes for one hour and tap straight lines. The purpose was to learn the "feel" when a graver is actually cutting. This is important as a lot of work is done by feel and this prevents you from overcutting.
The class is not without risk of injury and while I didn't impale myself, I did cut myself on sharp burrs. Got on cut on the thumb from pressing down too sharp on the graver with the thumb. Same with the forefinger. John suggested that we tape the graver (masking tape) to give it a rounder and softer feel. Another mistake I made was to have too short of a graver. A wood handle was attached but this dampens the blow and doesn't give you the "feel" as if it were metal on metal. It was discarded in favor of a longer graver.
Most of us brought optivisors of various magnification. I'm no exception. John use to use them but found them awkward whenever you have to look up to see what's going on or to talk with someone. He now uses a clip-on for his glasses and it works just as well. He's comfortable with about 4" distance from his work. The clip-on units may be purchased at Woodcraft.
(Speaking of Woodcraft, I did stop by there and bought 4 micro-dog legged chisels which will help with inletting the trigger guard as well as two Swiss Pfiel arrow brand chisels.)
For practice, we were given a pattern consisting of C scrolls and acanthus leaves. While some students used chinawhite (used to provide a white background when you trace your design from carbon paper) a couple of us used white shoe polish. Dykem or spray paint is also by John as a background.
John also showed us how to do backgrounds and borders and we practiced that for half a day.
By the end of the class, none of us were accomplished but with 15-20 minutes practice a day (which John recommends), we were well on our way.
I took John's class this year and he brought out huge wood models of engraving bits to show us what our bits should look like. John is largely self taught and did his first "engraving" by stamping and filing the rough edges. His first 15 rifles were done in this manner until he went to a gunshow in Ohio and saw a Filipino do real engraving. John doesn't speak Tagalog and the Filipino didn't speak English. Still, John stood by and watched in fascination for three days. He began to experiment and after 50 years is an accomplished engraver (who is still learning).
John's technique is not that which you will find in the books. Instead of engraving away from him, John holds the graver towards himself and chases it inwards. He states it gives him a better view of what he is trying to do than if he did it the other way. Think of using a wood chisel but in reverse. Unlike a wood chisel, you're not going to impale yourself and have a fountain of blood.
John points out that engraving is basically two lines: straight and curve. All floral, recocco, wildlife designs are based on those two lines and if you can master engraving those two lines, you can engrave. Not surprisingly, we spent the first hours learning how to hold our gravers and to tap out straight and curved lines. Another exercise was to close our eyes for one hour and tap straight lines. The purpose was to learn the "feel" when a graver is actually cutting. This is important as a lot of work is done by feel and this prevents you from overcutting.
The class is not without risk of injury and while I didn't impale myself, I did cut myself on sharp burrs. Got on cut on the thumb from pressing down too sharp on the graver with the thumb. Same with the forefinger. John suggested that we tape the graver (masking tape) to give it a rounder and softer feel. Another mistake I made was to have too short of a graver. A wood handle was attached but this dampens the blow and doesn't give you the "feel" as if it were metal on metal. It was discarded in favor of a longer graver.
Most of us brought optivisors of various magnification. I'm no exception. John use to use them but found them awkward whenever you have to look up to see what's going on or to talk with someone. He now uses a clip-on for his glasses and it works just as well. He's comfortable with about 4" distance from his work. The clip-on units may be purchased at Woodcraft.
(Speaking of Woodcraft, I did stop by there and bought 4 micro-dog legged chisels which will help with inletting the trigger guard as well as two Swiss Pfiel arrow brand chisels.)
For practice, we were given a pattern consisting of C scrolls and acanthus leaves. While some students used chinawhite (used to provide a white background when you trace your design from carbon paper) a couple of us used white shoe polish. Dykem or spray paint is also by John as a background.
John also showed us how to do backgrounds and borders and we practiced that for half a day.
By the end of the class, none of us were accomplished but with 15-20 minutes practice a day (which John recommends), we were well on our way.
