Thank you all for your interest in my granddad. I will try to answer your questions.
First, I confirm that we pronounce the name "Buckley". Most of the family here in the US spelled the name "Buechele", but my grandfather's dad and uncle both spelled their name Buchele - I don't know why. One older Buechele family member I met pronounced his name "Bew-shell". I believe my great-great grandfather, who was born in Germany, pronounced his name "Bew-shel-la" - well not exactly, but that's the best approximation I can make. If you know a little German you probably know how it's pronounced from the spelling.
William Buchele had three careers during his lifetime. During the years before World War One he worked for a while as a sign painter for the Toledo (Ohio) sign company and then as a machinist, probably for his father.
He also raced bicycles during that decade.
After returning from the war he married and again worked as a sign painter. If not right away, he eventually owned the Modern Sign Company in Toledo.
As a hobby, he did very nice oil paintings - self-taught, but with the same level of talent you've seen in his firearms. He also did wood carving during that time.
During the decade before World War II he became interested in astronomy and made telescopes, including the mirrors. At first these were small telescopes, but gradually they became quite large. One of those he mounted on the garage roof, equipped with an electrically-driven mechanism to follow the stars. I believe I have a photo somewhere of an even larger telescope he built for Toledo University.
His telescope mirror-making (which were quite large in diameter) led to him opening his own optical shop, and he received a lucrative government contract to make roof prisms for periscopes during the war years.
About the time he retired in the mid 50s he carved his first gun stocks. He and my father participated in the annual deer hunting ritual and he gave my father a nice Springfield-based hunting rifle with a terrific carved stock - dated 1957.
My grandfather was very proud of the fact that he was born in Louisville. His mother and father (before getting married) both lived in Toledo, but in the early 1890s his mother's family moved to Louisville. His father-to-be followed her down to Kentucky, married, and my grandfather was born there in 1895. They moved back to Toledo a few years later, where granddad's brothers and sisters were all born. I believe his being born in Kentucky led to his interest in recreating Kentucky rifles.
He went to a gun show in Columbus periodically to show his wares and gradually made a name for himself and his rifles.
As far as turning lots of rifles out, I feel that he didn't do that so much for the money, but that he just wanted to get as many of his rifles out there as he could. It was his retirement hobby. When I stayed at my grandparents house - he would be up at 7, eat breakfast at the kitchen counter and head right down to the basement and start work.
In the early 70s when the bicycle-riding resurgence began he was very excited to join us younger family members - my parents, aunt and uncle, me and my sister. Lot's of fun riding with grandpa...
He made a series of "1776" rifles to commemorate the anniversary. The following year he became ill and didn't feel up to building firearms, so he returned to oil painting. He painted a good number of those before he died in September.
He was one of those people who are able to teach himself how to do things - and he was able to do anything he set his mind to and do it well. The only exception to his self-taught skills that I know of were his initial employment as a sign painter and as a machinist - his machining skills certainly served him well in his optical business and firearm-making.
