The Whole Garage Catalogue: Modern Gunsmithing by Clyde Baker

Saturday, July 30, 2016

Modern Gunsmithing by Clyde Baker

[This item wasn't really in the garage -- it was on my dad's bookshelf by his La-Z-Boy in his living room.]

- - -

"A Manual of Firearms Design, Construction and Remodeling, for Amateurs and Professionals"

by CLYDE BAKER

SECOND EDITION, 1933

Published by the SMALL-ARMS TECHNICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, Plantersville, South Carolina, U.S.A.

- - -

It's quite a comprehensive volume.

Here's a paragraph from the opening chapter that can serve as an introduction to Mr. Baker's outlook:

"Work -- honest, decent labor, skill of fingers, accuracy of eye, -- somehow it seems to be beneath the present generation. The business man in his office sticks out his chest, holds "conferences," frowns and looks wise, preening himself on that thing he calls "ability." Then he sharpens his pencil by sticking it into a little machine and turning a crank -- or more likely screws down the point of an automatic gold one; has his finger nails cleaned by the blonde in the barber shop; calls a service man to change a tire on his car; wears a little useless penknife on his watch chain and sends it to a grinding shop to be whetted! -- yes, he does just that. We've been pampered now to the point of helplessness -- and if we don't watch our step, we'll find ourselves at the point of uselessness."

Bear in mind that those thoughts date from the early 1930s. What would Mr Baker think of today's automated world?

There's a brief biographical item on Mr Baker here.

# # #

FEEDBACK

# # #

No comments:

Post a Comment

Introduction

This blog is in honour of my deceased father, Nick Gaspick.

It sprang from what had started out as merely a post on my workshop blog, Rouge River Workshop. Here's my introduction to that post:

"My son has been clearing out my deceased father's garage, so he'll have a place to restore an old car, and he's been finding all manner of stuff. I've begun one post about an old woodworking vise that I mean to restore. This weekend, my son brought me four toolboxes full of items. As a small honour to my father, I'll 'catalogue' them in this post, in no particular order, little-by-little as I go through the boxes."

The nature of the post was for it to grow ever longer, and that can be dangerous. Blogger has some quirks that I've experienced in the past, and I was getting tired of always backing up the entire post so I wouldn't lose it should Blogger vapourize an editing session. I finally decided to make a full-blown blog with an index out of the post. Here it is.

I'll leave the original post as it is, where it is, but I'll bring over all the items in it so far as individual, indexed posts here as well. Needless to say, new material will only appear here.

- - -

A Little About My Father:

My father emigrated to Canada with his family from Croatia at about the age of seven. His family took on a homestead up Sudbury, Ontario way, and made a living there through the great depression.

My father loved school, and yearned to continue his schooling past grade eight, but that was not on. He had to leave school to make a living -- trapping, mining, whatever. Eventually, he and his made their way to Toronto -- the big smoke in Canada.

My father was built like a brick shit-house; he was a sturdy guy, unlike scrawny me. My father was a guy who could clear an acre of Canadian bush before breakfast, have it tilled and planted before lunchtime, with the plants sprouting before dinnertime.

Jesus H. Christ!-- a guy like my father ought to have lived forever!