Wasn`t sure which area to post this, but this one probably works!
Good gunsmith`s are hard to find, great gunsmiths are rare. In my experience, not everyone who does gunsmithing work is a real gunsmith. I don`t have any written criteria, but I know the things I`ve paid people to do, and the approximate degree of difficulty of that work, and who failed me, and who preformed well for me. In some cases, I literally threw money away, but had no way of knowing what I was going to get for that money.
We just lost a really, really good gunsmith. Jim Fishel, of O`Fishel Gunworks in Goshen Indiana is moving on to other endeavors and no longer taking on any further gunsmithing work. This hurts. He`s done work for me, and I can tell you, he is as knowledgeable and competent as anyone I`ve ever had do work for me. Jim is, in my mind, that rare gunsmith, the guy who knows what he`s talking about, knows what he`s doing, and goes well out of his way to exceed your expectations and needs. I was just getting to know him, and when he let me know that he would no longer be gunsmithing, I was floored.
So now, the search is one to find that Holy Grail; another competent gunsmith. Is the thread on gunsmiths current? Is everyone on that thread still working in that business? Anyone have a really, really good gunsmith in central, west central Indiana they would vouch for?
Good gunsmith`s are hard to find, great gunsmiths are rare. In my experience, not everyone who does gunsmithing work is a real gunsmith. I don`t have any written criteria, but I know the things I`ve paid people to do, and the approximate degree of difficulty of that work, and who failed me, and who preformed well for me. In some cases, I literally threw money away, but had no way of knowing what I was going to get for that money.
We just lost a really, really good gunsmith. Jim Fishel, of O`Fishel Gunworks in Goshen Indiana is moving on to other endeavors and no longer taking on any further gunsmithing work. This hurts. He`s done work for me, and I can tell you, he is as knowledgeable and competent as anyone I`ve ever had do work for me. Jim is, in my mind, that rare gunsmith, the guy who knows what he`s talking about, knows what he`s doing, and goes well out of his way to exceed your expectations and needs. I was just getting to know him, and when he let me know that he would no longer be gunsmithing, I was floored.
So now, the search is one to find that Holy Grail; another competent gunsmith. Is the thread on gunsmiths current? Is everyone on that thread still working in that business? Anyone have a really, really good gunsmith in central, west central Indiana they would vouch for?
