There are a lot of places you likely think don’t allow guns, but you’d be surprised. Even though their citizens can own them, not all countries allow home gunsmithing. Be glad you live here.
To start down the path of pistolsmithing, you need more than just a collection of tricks, tools and skills. You must have knowledge, skills, tools, and a place to use them. Most of all, you need the desire.
Keep clear in your mind what you are setting out to do; are you undertaking pistolsmithing for fun, or as a route to a new career? It is entirely possible to start out just wanting to “do a few things for myself” and in due time find yourself with a new career anyway.
When considering gunsmithing for yourself, it’s important to keep the law in mind, too. A particular smithing task may be easy, but if the local ordinances or state law do not permit it, then it’s a no-go. Do not undertake any task the law does not permit.
There is no secret body of knowledge in pistolsmithing, no set of mysterious “tricks” handed down from one generation to the next. Much of what is done by professional pistolsmiths is done behind closed doors, but the intent is not mystery. The door is often closed to keep overzealous customers from jostling the pistolsmith’s elbow or asking distracting questions when supreme concentration is required. Admittedly, sometimes it’s also to keep the customer from seeing how easy a particular task is.
You need patience. You need practice. You may have the option of practicing on scrap guns bought at a gun show for a pittance. If the laws where you live make acquisition and disposal too difficult, practice on rifles or shotguns or simply bars of steel. The key is to practice, practice, practice.
There are a lot of places you likely think don’t allow guns, but you’d be surprised. Even though their citizens can own them, not all countries allow home gunsmithing. Be glad you live here.
You need the right tools. Tools commonly found in the home workshop are not suited for pistolsmithing. What do the professionals use? Almost always, they use the best. The cost difference between the best and “good enough” is small. The best will last longer, cut cleaner, require less maintenance, and provide you lasting happiness.
This is not the way to treat your workspace. Keep it clean and neat, or else you’ll lose parts, trip and fall, or cut/burn/stain something “stored” below your bench or vise.
If you have the room, and only if you have the room, you might think about this level of organization. Unless you are a pro, this is overkill.
You need focus. If you are, for example, a football fan, do not try to do your gunsmithing at the same time as you are watching your favorite team. Pay attention to what you are doing if for no other reason than mistakes can be expensive.
Finally, you need this book. Many texts directed at professional pistolsmiths assume the reader already has a large base of knowledge and experience. Without such an education, random experimentation on your guns can be expensive, frustrating and painful. For the shooters and readers who want to get the job done right the first time this book is the beginning of your adventure.
Buy the correct screwdrivers for the job. Using one “close enough” is a sure way to mangle a screw slot. You have no one to blame but yourself.
If you want to see what a new arrangement of cocking serrations might look like, mill them into an otherwise scrapped slide.
Yes, it was done as a joke. But all the parts involved were used-up, cracked, or otherwise not useable in a customer’s gun. So, the gunsmith had some fun one afternoon and got in some practice.
You can simply use this book as a guide when talking to your professional gunsmith. Knowing how things are done, and what works and what doesn’t, can save you from expensive and needless work, and might also keep your guns out of the hands of a hack. And as important as “how-to” knowledge is understanding what you can do yourself and what you shouldn’t attempt.
Know the desired result, before you go filing, grinding and wrenching on a brand-new, and expensive part.
When you order a part, order it as much the way you want it as possible. If you want a threaded barrel with fitted bushing, order it that way. Learning is fun, but don’t go to extra work if you don’t have to.
Take all your welding tasks for handguns to a professional. Always. Welding handguns is an entirely different level of skill than welding a broken brake pedal back onto the garden tractor. Properly done welding requires expensive equipment that you have to use on a regular basis in order to keep “the touch.”
Other jobs best left to the professional, include many surface finishes and heat treatments.
To buy your tools, look in the Brownells catalog. It offers everything you need to get started, and to become a professional if that’s where the road leads you. If you want to know what is currently available, you need the latest catalog. Just ask for it or go online and search the Brownells website at www.brownells.com.
With understanding of what’s needed, let’s begin the journey.
If you want to learn to fit a trigger, buy a bunch of used ones at a gun show, if you can. Then file, grind, fit, and scrap.
The Brownells catalog is a great read, even if you never order anything from it. If you do order, you won’t be disappointed.