Publications:
CW Journal: Past
Issues: Autumn 2000
Text
by Ed Crews
Photos by Dave Doody Gunsmith George Suiter leans over
his workbench, engrossed in intricate metal work. Bright sunlight
pours in a large window, and he sees clearly the parts he is fitting
together. He has more than thirty years of gun-making experience,
but this is unexplored territory. Suiter is reproducing an eighteenth-century
swivel gun.
Used by wealthy Europeans, swivel guns had two barrels, set one
atop the other. One barrel has a smooth interior and fires pellets
for hunting birds and other small game. The second barrel is rifled,
which means it has spiraled grooves cut into its interior. The grooves
make the bullet spin as it heads toward a target, which increases
range, stability, and accuracy. This barrel is for big game.
A customer, in the person of interpreter
Ron Carnegie, considers a purchase from the Colonial Williamsburg
shop of journeyman gunsmith George Suiter. |
The swivel gun's design allowed a 1700s hunter to rotate barrels
to choose the best ammunition for his target. To make that choice,
a marksman flipped a metal tab to unlock the barrels. He turned
the appropriate barrel to the top, locked it in place with another
flip of the tab, and fired.
"This is the first time we've made a swivel gun," said
Suiter, the Colonial Williamsburg gun shop's senior journeyman and
supervisor. "I learned a lot in the process. Probably, the
most important thing I've learned is that precision work is possible
with hand-tool technology. For example, using equipment we have
here, I've been able to ream the barrels so their interior diameters
differ by only 0.0005 of an inch."
The swivel-gun mechanism. |
Projects like the swivel gun always are under way in the small
Historic Area shop between the Capitol and Francis Street. Another
gunsmith is reproducing a long-rifle used by frontier hunters and
Indian fighters. A third is making an elegant copy of a boy's fowling
piece, a hunting weapon scaled-down so that a ten-year old could
use it easily and comfortably. Rich in detail and silver highlights,
it was something only a wealthy plantation owner's son could have
had.
These craftsmen, and their predecessors, have tackled hundreds
of similar projects since Colonial Williamsburg's gunsmithing program
began in 1963. It combines their production talents with a mission
to educate visitors. Wallace Gusler, master of the gun shop, has
been essential from the start. He arrived in 1962 to get the operation
going. He was twenty then. A self-taught gunsmith from Southwest
Virginia, he had built his first muzzleloader, a pistol, six years
before without instruction.
"I grew up hunting and fishing," Gusler said. "I
also was interested in Indian artifacts and the history of the Virginia
frontier during the French and Indian War. My father had a percussion,
muzzle-loading rifle made about 1830. One day, I started cleaning
it and got intrigued with how it worked. This led me to make my
first pistol. I tried to copy one I had seen in Antiques Magazine.
I made the firing mechanism, figuring out how to build it by disassembling
my father's rifle. I made parts and salvaged some springs from a
Model T. The pistol worked, and I even used it for squirrel hunting."
Gusler's interest became a passion. To learn more, he talked with
local gunsmiths, read, and began repairing antique weapons. He connected
with a growing network of firearms enthusiasts interested in shooting
and collecting old American weapons. Impressed, Gusler's high school
principal and shop teacher allowed him to build a reproduction of
a nineteenth-century rifle in shop class. "At that point in
my life, gunsmithing became an obsession," he said.
Through friends interested in antique guns, Gusler learned of Colonial
Williamsburg's hope to open a shop and its need for a gunsmith.
He applied on the strength of his knowledge and his talents as demonstrated
by the high-school rifle. "The gun I made in high school was
the one that got me the job in Colonial Williamsburg."
From the outset, Colonial Williamsburg's gunsmithing program has
been dedicated to preserving the craft and expanding the knowledge
of it. Master Blacksmith John Allgood and Gusler worked together,
accumulating tools, information, and skills during the 1960s. In
1965, Gusler made Colonial Williamsburg's first hand-forged barrel.
It was a difficult, time-consuming operation. He soon understood
the words of an old gunsmith who had told him that the process required
"a big fire and three crazy men."
Journeyman gunsmith Richar Frazier
words on a lock at a bench vise. |
The shop also made a boring machine and a rifling machine to groove
the barrels. That year, Gusler used them to construct his first
rifle fabricated entirely of hand-made parts. It established the
shop and launched its program.
Two gunsmiths have become a staff of six: Gusler and Suiter; Richard
Frazier, journeyman; Clay Smith, journeyman; Jeff Geyer, apprentice;
and Byron Smith, interpreter. Everybody is familiar with eighteenth-century
firearms technology.
Overwhelmingly, civilian and military weapons of the period in
Europe and America were flintlocks. The name refers to the ignition
system, which relied on a piece of flint set in a movable cock.
The cock fell when the trigger was pulled. The flint struck a piece
of steel, creating sparks. The sparks fell into a gunpowder charge
in an external pan. The powder ignited the main charge in the barrel
by passing through a small hole in the barrel.
In 1700s Virginia, the flintlock system was used on all military
muskets, which were smoothbores, and on civilian arms, which included
fowling pieces, trade guns, and rifles.
The fowling piece probably was the most popular civilian arm of
the day. Men liked them for their versatility. Hunters could load
them with small lead balls for birds and other small game. They
also could use a single large ball or several smaller ones-buckshot-for
large game like deer. The long fowler was a variation of the fowling
piece. It was heavy and big, and designed to kill as many waterfowl
in a shot as possible.
The trade gun was a smoothbore. It was a simple, inexpensive piece
made in Europe for use in America.
The rifle was, in comparison to fowling pieces and smoothbores,
highly accurate at long distances, and well suited to the frontier.
"To be an accomplished gun maker can require knowledge about
working with a variety of materials: iron, steel, brass, silver,
and wood," Gusler said. "You need to know a little bit
about the skills required by a carver, engraver, machinist, blacksmith,
silversmith, and tool maker, although you don't need mastery in
all. The mix is intriguing and demanding."
The mix reflects the complexity of firearms. Consider the three
major components of all guns in this period:
Firelock, or lock. This was the firing mechanism. It included
a trigger, an external powder pan, a hammer, springs, and other
small internal parts. Making the lock required mechanical skill
and steady hands. Each part, every screw, was handmade and required
forging, filing, and fitting.
Stock. This was the wooden part of the weapon. It held
the barrel and firing mechanism, and allowed a shooter to grip
and to steady the weapon. Stock makers of the 1700s used well-seasoned
hardwoods like curly maple. The stock could be plain or ornately
carved. The firelock and the barrel had to be carefully fitted
into the stock. Stock making required woodworking skills of a
high order.
Barrel. The barrel was the long tube through which the
bullet passed. Barrel makers began work with a flat wrought-iron
bar. This was forged into a tube by heating, hammering, and fusing
with flux. The tube was bored with a reamer for a uniform interior.
The barrel was tested, or proofed. That involved firing the barrel
with four times the normal amount of gunpowder. This was done
at stationary stand, and barrel testers used a fuse to clear the
area. If the barrel could withstand this without exploding, it
was ready to use.
Colonial Williamsburg gunsmiths can perform all the work required,
but most eighteenth-century guns were not made by a single man producing
all the components for a single weapon. Most guns in North America
came from Europe where they were assembled from parts built by subcontractors
who spent their lifetimes making one or two parts, such as barrels
or triggers. This approach allowed European gun makers to keep production
steady and costs low through economies of scale and the division
of labor. This manufacturing system, particularly in Great Britain,
reflected the evolution from a rural to an urban society. It also
was the beginning of interchangeable parts and assembly line production
which characterized the Industrial Revolution.
A barrel takes shape on an anvil beside
the forge under the hammer of journeyman gunsmith Clay Smith
with Suiter's help. |
"There was an agricultural revolution in England during the
1700s. The market for wool was strong. So, sheep production grew.
It was more economical to move people off farmland and use it for
sheep," Suiter said. "These displaced people went to cities,
where they formed a pool of cheap labor. There, they also picked
up work skills and could specialize in specific tasks for various
producers. This trend had an impact on gun making, which needed
many components. In London, during the 1740s, twenty-one trades
were involved in gun production."
Many subcontractor gun parts were produced in cottage industry
settings. One part of a home, for example, might be used exclusively
for making springs used in firing mechanisms. In the end, all parts
were sent to a central facility where complete weapons were assembled.
Small parts makers tended to live close to gun assembly shops, creating
vibrant and economically close-knit communities.
American gun makers could not compete with the efficiency or scale
of this system. Colonial gunsmiths typically did repairs rather
than production. They often took on non-gun related tasks, applying
their blacksmithing and mechanical skills to whatever job came along.
In peacetime, this seemed to be the case in eighteenth-century Williamsburg.
The Geddy family was perhaps the best-known of all the city's gunsmiths
then. Among the other gunsmiths were William Willis and John Brush.
Colonial gunmakers, however, could and did control one niche in
the North American market. That was rifle making. "The long
rifle was the only gun made in numbers in America in the 1700s,"
Gusler said. "During its time, it was the highest expression
of the gun maker's art in this country."
The long rifle apparently evolved from German hunting rifles; the
gunsmiths who created this New World weapon initially shared a German
heritage. The American long rifle grew from these roots to meet
frontier needs and conditions. The conventional wisdom has been
that these rifles were made exclusively in Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
Gusler's research, conducted over his lifetime, shows, however,
that long rifles were also made in Virginia, especially around Shepherdstown,
Winchester, Augusta County, and the central Shenandoah Valley.
The long rifle was the weapon for the frontier. Its long range
allowed hunters to take large game, such as deer and elk, at a distance.
A marksman could hit targets at two hundred yards. Powder and shot
were short on the frontier, and long rifles let hunters get food
with one round, reducing the ammunition they needed to buy and to
carry.
Because of the long rifle's handsome appearance and its reputation
as an especially American tool, modern day Williamsburg gunsmiths
regularly make them for enthusiasts. The waiting list is long, about
four years, and the price for a weapon is high, averaging $20,000.
Apprentice gunsmith Jeff Geyer uses
a candle to supplement sunlight from the windows to work on
a flintlock's stock. |
Not only are gun making and gun history important to today's Colonial
Williamsburg smiths, so is helping visitors understand the role
of the gun in early American history.
Many Americans have never held or fired a pistol or a rifle and
lack knowledge of their functioning and capabilities. In the 1960s,
when Gusler started, and into the 1970s, this wasn't the case. Many
visitors had grown up on farms and used guns for hunting and recreation.
In addition, veterans of World War II, the Korean Conflict, and
Vietnam had learned to use rifles in basic training. But shifts
from rural areas to urban areas, and a decline in the veteran population
and military service has changed this. Moreover, concerns about
guns and crime have inspired emotions about weapons ranging from
fear to anger-all of which gun shop personnel have seen firsthand.
When Suiter came to Colonial Williamsburg about twenty-five years
ago, many gun shop visitors questions dealt with technical issues
about gun performance and production. Fewer of these questions are
asked today. Instead, people want to understand the social history
of the gun in America and the evolution of the Second Amendment.
Gun shop staff say that tackling these issues and bridging the
knowledge gap is made easier by interpretative themes in the restored
area. This year's theme-"Taking Possession"-is a perfect
vehicle.
Focusing on "Taking Possession," which addresses exploration,
expansion, and settlement of colonial America, Suiter likes to explain
how important a role the gun played in frontier life. What was then
the West teemed with big game. Firearms allowed settlers to take
it with comparative ease, ensuring their survival as well as that
of their family, and their community.
Guns also had an impact on the colonial economies. At certain points
in the 1700s, deer-hide shipments to Europe were a large and crucial
part of Virginia's commerce.
Finally, Suiter said, guns, particularly rifles, helped settlers
defend themselves. Armed frontiersmen could fight and overpower
Native Americans using superior weapons technology.
Gusler and Suiter believe that talking about the role of guns in
colonial America will help people to understand perceptions of them
today. Perhaps as important is the shop's preservation of the gunsmith's
art, rapidly vanishing in the industrialized age.
"We want to preserve the trade so we can pass it on,"
Suiter said. "Preservation, for us, means practice. We look
on each gun we make as a research project. All of them give us a
chance to learn and to expand our skills."
Richmond writer Ed Crews contributed to the summer journal
"A Bad Girl Goes Good in Early Virginia," an article about
eighteenth-century novelist Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders.
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Historic Triangle