Tools, and Gear

There's something primal about it.

Something that digs back into the deepest part of one's soul where your ancestors are still alive and well, and guiding you down the path they walked. Momma always said I was born 200 years too late. She wasn't far off with that. A time when if you needed something, you crafted it out of what you had, with what you had.

Making the tools you need to make the gear you want. Relying as little as possible on someone, or something else to achieve your goals, and even your dreams.

Self-Sustainence. Self-Reliance.

Need it, build it.....

OK -- let's see you make the steel - then I'll be impressed - otherwise ----

The Appalachian said:

There's something primal about it.

Something that digs back into the deepest part of one's soul where your ancestors are still alive and well, and guiding you down the path they walked. Momma always said I was born 200 years too late. She wasn't far off with that. A time when if you needed something, you crafted it out of what you had, with what you had.

Making the tools you need to make the gear you want. Relying as little as possible on someone, or something else to achieve your goals, and even your dreams.

Self-Sustainence. Self-Reliance.

Need it, build it.....

View attachment 180616

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I agree, it is very satisfying to make your tools, accoutrements, and to repair anything broken.

ZUG said:

OK -- let's see you make the steel - then I'll be impressed - otherwise ----

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Obviously the point being made is WAY over your head........

I just made an extra sight drift with a shallow support ridge, now I have one for my bench and one for my range box. But I didn’t make the brass.

The Appalachian said:

Obviously the point being made is WAY over your head........

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Well, I watched a program where they DID make their own steel....

Im planning on making my own rifles. I planted the stocks this year.

That’s a good one @Flying B!

Flying B said:

Im planning on making my own rifles. I planted the stocks this year. View attachment 180821

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Yes.....

Carpenters should never not plant their own trees.

Weavers should never not sheer their own sheep.

Great Chefs should never not plant their own vegetables and butcher their own beef.

Because welder/fabricators MUST make their own steel to be legit in ZUG's eyes.

Etc.....

Not that those things aren't doable, and have surely been done by at least someone, but general society doesn't expect it.

ZUG only flatters himself thinking I care if he's impressed or not. One more on the ignore list........

I flatter no one not even you -- what you show and tell is things everyone who has any skill would know from a young age. That is skill he or she has learned from their parents. The only thing you sir have learned is that one must have a sharp tongue and a small mind to belabor his point.

I think most people would just buy what I'm building in the picture, I don't recall seeing anything but store bought on people's benches, but I'd rather spend more time in my shop than money in my bank account. So I'll build it and have no regrets.

As far as flattery, again, point missed by a country mile.

Keep trying, or not, nobody cares........

Old Sylvan Hart, known as "Buckskin Bill", and "The Last Mountainman" lived alone as a recluse in the Idaho wilderness for many years before his death. He made his own muzzleloading rifles from scrap metal that he scrounged around abandoned mine sites, using it to forge his own gun barrels, make the locks, triggers, all of it. He grew his own vegetables and hunted his meat. He made his own buckskin clothes.
Yet, he was a college educated engineer. He claimed that he first went into the wilderness to escape the Great Depression of the 1930's. During WWII he came out of the mountains and went to work helping to design a new highly efficient bomb sight for our heavy bombers. After the war he went back to the mountains.

Why buy if you can make what you need, the art of self-reliance is being lost on younger folks. I remember my grandfather and dad needing something they would go to the always there junk pile root around a bit, drag something into the shop and before you knew it, they had what was needed. Knew a old Mountaineer from WVA although he did not build muzzleloaders, he built some of the finest un-mentionable rifles one has seen. There all moved on now but at times I hear one of them whisper don't buy that make it. And I do my best to fulfill their legacy's. This is one aspect of the craft I find most rewarding.

appalichian hunter said:

Why buy if you can make what you need, the art of self-reliance is being lost on younger folks. I remember my grandfather and dad needing something they would go to the always there junk pile root around a bit, drag something into the shop and before you knew it, they had what was needed. Knew a old Mountaineer from WVA although he did not build muzzleloaders, he built some of the finest un-mentionable rifles one has seen. There all moved on now but at times I hear one of them whisper don't buy that make it. And I do my best to fulfill their legacy's. This is one aspect of the craft I find most rewarding.

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Well said.......

appalichian hunter said:

the art of self-reliance is being lost on younger folks.

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I think there comes a time not far down the road where those skills of self-reliance and self-sustainence will be the difference between thriving and just surviving, or maybe not surviving at all. I'd like to think I'm prepared with enough knowledge to get my family, friends, and myself through a time like that.
I wouldn't call myself a prepper, because I don't have a bunch of manure hoarded up, but I have a pretty good tool bag of tricks to stay warm, fed, and protected having been raised the way I was and having lived the life I've lived. I consider all that part of the point I'm making with this thread as well.

Building something out of nothing, now that’s something...As the saying goes can be very satisfying but there is the point of diminishing returns. How far is one willing to go to acquire the raw materials? Mining and smelting iron ore is going to take tools also.

I’m going to be building my first flintlock kit in a long dang time soon. I have often wondered how far back I could take building a rifle from scratch. I’m thinking about building some of my tools as I go for putting the kit together and then possibly building a rifle from scratch other than the barrel and lock. I have been thinking about doing this for a few decades, so it will be interesting to see how far I go with it.

I like were your coming from @The Appalachian

Using your hands and mind to build things is what makes us who we are. It’s part of our worth as a human being.

Without the philosophy it’s just plain fun and rewarding to do.

Excellent! Never stop creating and working with your hands.

Quicksilver said:

there is the point of diminishing returns. How far is one willing to go to acquire the raw materials?

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Personally, I have more time than money. That doesn't mean I couldn't buy what is being built in the above picture, I've priced them. I concluded that I could build something better than I could buy, and invest less money with just a little time. Therein is my justification regarding diminishing returns. Design it better, build it for less. That, and it's just in my DNA to do such things.

Good luck with your rifle build.

Quicksilver said:

Building something out of nothing, now that’s something...As the saying goes can be very satisfying but there is the point of diminishing returns. How far is one willing to go to acquire the raw materials? Mining and smelting iron ore is going to take tools also.

I’m going to be building my first flintlock kit in a long dang time soon. I have often wondered how far back I could take building a rifle from scratch. I’m thinking about building some of my tools as I go for putting the kit together and then possibly building a rifle from scratch other than the barrel and lock. I have been thinking about doing this for a few decades, so it will be interesting to see how far I go with it.

I like were your coming from @The Appalachian

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there's a video of I believe Wallace Gussler hand building a rifle in Williamsburg, from forging the barrel through casting all the furniture you may find interesting. I once watched him and an apprentice forging a barrel there, lots of work.