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Earl Kathan?

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sooter76

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Has anyone heard anything about, or have any experience with Earl Kathan and flintlockrepair.com?

I know these are India made guns, but I'm considering ordering one just for a cheap range toy and maybe re-enacting at some point. The website says he removes the locks on the muskets and checks the function as well as case heardening the frizzen and drills a 3/32" vent hole. As well he'll break down the lock and polish the parts and harden the tumbler and sear for improved lock performance and reliability for a fee.

Anyone have any opinions?
 
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I highly recommend Earl. Have purchased two guns from him and had the locks tuned. Everything works great. Have spoken to Earl and his wife Kathy personally. Nice folks with good turn around time. Also, had one used lock repaired. Works great.
 
in 2009, I sent him a 1777 Middlesex Charleville with a broken stock and a trigger pull of about 40 pounds. I had purchased this musket as a factory reject at a substantial discount. Earl and his wife cleaned it up very nicely, so that it looks great. They also proofed it, and it's now shootable and living in a museum. I can recommend them heartily. Give them my best wishes!!!
 
It's great to have a beater musket the college students can learn on....and most of the time they are just handling it anyway. Now you have me thinking about another Kathan musket...
 
A friend of mine really messed up a doglock tuning job and I sent it to Earl and its one of the best locks I have now,I may send him the lock from my 2000 dollar bess as it doesn't perform as well as the India gun. I give him a thumbs up
 
Highly recommended. I also indulged me with a lengthy email correspondence that helped me on a number of issues relating to my flintlocks.
 
I also can't praise Earl high enough. I purchased an India-made Jaeger that someone imported and decided that the lock was just so poorly made that it wasn't worth their time to try to make right and resell. I had the gun sent directly to Earl. He had that lock tuned, smoothed up and sparking great in no time. The price was really reasonable too.

Earl also has some great information on his web-site about the way India-made guns are built particularly addressing how the breech plugs are fit as well as information on screw thread sizes.
 
fixed two guns for me, both work perfect now. recommending earl for all flintlock related gunsmithing.
 
FWIW my brother sent a lock from a Spanish-made flintlock to Earl and you would have thought he transformed it into a deluxe Siler made by Jim Chambers himself! I was a hearty skeptic until I saw and shot it for myself. Highly recommended!
 
The Long Land Brown Bess I got from him did have a great lock, but the tube barrel had "loose chamber" syndrome. A nice tight patched ball would get real loose about 8" from the chamber.
 
I was devasted when Earl told me of his diagnosis. It really saddens me and my prayers are with him daily.
Earl is my gunsmith. But I also consider him a personal friend. He and Kathy are great people.
I can't even remember how many original locks Earl has repaired/tuned for me (and I still have more to send him). Includes flintlocks, miquelets, snaphaunce, and a couple wheellocks. Without Earl, my hobby would have never progressed to the point it is now. Earl has a Swedish Snaplock kit from TRS to build for me. But still waiting for the barrel from Coleraine (been 10 months now) :( And all the oddball stuff he has made for me (just ask him LOL). He is especially talented with a forge. He has fixed locks for me that others probably wouldn't attempt. So, I can't recommend him highly enough. He has done also done three restorations for me. Two of them very difficult. And he is easy to work with and very reasonable.
Rick. :hatsoff:
 
I've had work done by him and was very satisfied. Recently asked if he could do the hardening and tempering of a lock I will be building and he said that right now he is not accepting any new work. Let hope his treatments are successful.
 
I learned about Earl's condition only a few days ago, I along with others are waiting on this and that from him and will just have to be patient and hope it all goes well for him. I probably will be scolded for this but, Google his website, or Earl Kathan, Gunsmith. Read the story and take it from there. I had a post removed for including more information concerning what can be done for Earl and his family, unfortunately it went against forum rules. Blackfingers :thumbsup:
 
I musta said something wrong too because my early post supporting him, and you Blackfingers, is gone as well.

It's a strange world. There's a yahoo here who recommended Earl "personally" and then got caught out by me that he'd never even sent anything to Earl to be worked on.

I, on the other hand, was at Earl's just a bit before his diagnosis. :(

Stay strong you Kathans you!
 
Once again we see forum members who have used Earl's services over a range of period/repro work and write highly of him, as others have done in the past.

I do not know Earl personally, but this is enough for me to know that I will pray for him and hope for as good of recovery as possible.

Gus
 

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