Is gunsmithing a lost art?

[PzGren]

I would say you are right about that.

I would also say higher education in any form does pretty much the same thing. Gives you knowledge you then have to be able to apply on the job.

No higher education prepares you for the workforce. For some reason, many people think it does, including and especially those attending school. They get a rude wake up call when they get their first job….and then their feelings get all hurt.

As I like to say, there is no substitute for intelligence and in our society with a severe education inflation a degree most certainly is no substitute. Then there is something called talent. As a gunsmith has be able to let the hands recreate properly what the brain is thinking up. If someone cannot do a technical drawing and some little sketches, then it is ill fated to intend becoming a stock maker and trying their hand at checkering.
Attention to detail and a love for the work is a pre-requisite and as I pointed out before, there are much more lucrative fields for a person so talented.

 

[earlthegoat2]

The thing is, gunsmithing with blue steel and walnut is now considered an art and is priced accordingly.

Attention to detail and a love for the work is a pre-requisite and as I pointed out before, there are much more lucrative fields for a person so talented.

When you have to be a good metalworker, good woodworker, and good machinist, your probably the most mechanically skilled person in your geographic area and as such you are or can also be a good plumber, electrician, auto and equipment mechanic etc.

This is why gunsmiths are rare. There is more money in the things they are also good at.

It reminds me of the industrial revolution. Take a handsaw. Handsaws were used predominantly before the industrial revolution made machine tools more common. Well, handsaws were made by hand back then or with crude (by 20th century standards) machinery. When industrial machinery was developed handsaws could be made rapidly and less expensively by machine tools. However, handsaw use nosedived because mechanized saws were developed and could also be made easily with the newly developed machine tools. Mechanized saws were machine tools themselves.

For the same very reason handsaws became obsolete did tablesaws, radial arm saws, etc. take their place.

Sort of the same thing with the gunsmith. For the very reason a gunsmith is a good gunsmith makes them good at many other trades that are in more demand.

 

[Bcwitt]

Once upon a time, manufacturing wasn't as good as it is today. A gunsmith was nessesary because you could not produce parts to "drop in" quality or reliably produce good alloys (circa 1898). Each part was individually fit. Today you can pull parts off a similar gun & assume they will work. Gunsmithing lost most of its work because of greatly improved manufacturing & metallurgy. Nobody is going to pay someone a skilled labor wage to polish & fit when you can just replace a part.

 

[entropy]

I know a gunsmith who went to a reputable school for several years to learn the trade

He found out, pretty quick, that most gun people are cheap. They need a firing pin, extractor etc for an old gun and only want to pay $30 for him to make it
The metal, precision machining and heat treat take him a couple of hours to do

He ended up renting space at a local range in a wealthy neighborhood. He mainly changes sights does cleaning and replaces drop in parts. Charges a minimum of $60. Most work takes him under 30 minutes. He is booked out a month

Same reason doctors are scare in the sticks.