Specialty Tools For Gunsmiths

I am an inveterate tool collector. OK, junkie. I never met a tool I didn’t like except for, to paraphrase the late, great Will Rogers, *$#% pieces of crap that didn’t work as advertised. That being said, you can always find a tool you don’t actually have any use for. Yeah, but something is bound to turn up, right? I like digging around in old antique stores. Sometimes a gem will turn up in all that rough. Auctions, especially farm auctions, can be a good source for working tools.

For example, my cousin is a meat cutter by trade. He knows how to sharpen a knife and has given me good instruction in the art. I always assumed he learned how to keep a fine edge on his equipment in trade school. However, when the subject came up one day he told me our grandfather had taught him. If you want to know how to sharpen anything ask a farmer. I recently picked up an old marble stone for final finishing of knives for a couple of bucks.

It is set in a wooden holder with some kind of epoxy to place it in a vise while in use. Even a leather strop is not much better to get that last degree of keen hone on a blade. Sometimes real bargains can be obtained. I was looking at a pair of tin snips at Lowe’s, retailing around thirty dollars. I found an old pair in an antique store for three dollars. The owners assumed they would be hanging on the wall as a decoration. I use them in my shop and they’re stronger than the new ones.

Yard saleing is a minor industry in my neck of the woods. Every weekend there are a lot of people trying to get rid of old junk. On holidays I and other special occasions you can hardly drive up and down the road for all the cars parked on both sides. If you are into baby clothes and mis- The knife matched glassware, this is the spot for you. If I see a promising setup I’ll ask if they have tools or sporting equipment like fishing reels, rods and old lures.

Just don’t take your wife with you if you want to make a quick entrance and exit. Who do you think buys all those baby clothes? Some guys seem to have all the luck. A friend brought home a motorized sharpener with a large white Arkansas stone that runs in a water bath. I drooled over it and would have paid a pretty penny if I could find one. When I asked him where he had obtained such a great tool, he answered, "yard sale." I bought anew one and it wasn’t cheap.

Sometimes you just need that special tool to make a hard job go easy. A British Enfield showed up in the shop the other day with a bottom up on the cheap. Whoever put it togethis a Shrade Old Timer. than new ones. They are very strong. the other I picked up at an antique

This little kit from Sears helped me remove a stubborn screw from a British Enfield. It is much more convenient than a hair dryer or a propane torch. You can go from mild to wild, but this one from Wagner was not expensive and should last along time. metal screw that looked as though a ham-fisted Nepalese Gurkha had tried to tighten it with a cast iron fence post. The screw slot was really ruined. I tried my gunsmith screw drivers after adding some penetrating oil.

I even heated it with a heat gun and tapped the screwdriver as I tried to turn it out. No go. A little screw extractor kit from Sears saved the day. It comes with five drill bits and sizes 1-5 left hand taps to back out the screws. Available for only fifteen dollars as of this writing, it should last along time given it’s only used occasionally.

All you have to do is drill down through the head of the offending screw enough so the tap can get purchase, then set the tap with a small hammer and use a T-handle to turn the tap tight until the screw comes out. Easy as pie. My customer thinks I’m a wizard. Speaking of heat guns, this is something no shop should be without. I’ve used mine on many projects and can’t say enough good things about it.

From drying a wooden stock to feather it for final sanding to heating apart or a screw to loosen it, there really is no substitute. In the past, I’ve used a propane torch to dry my The one on the left is so old I don’t know where it came from. I think I remember seeing it in grandma’s house. The one on the right is newer and I got it for three bucks at a yard sale. It comes with a leather strop on one side. This will sharpen any tool to a keen edge in a hurry. stocks.

It works, but the possibility of darkening the stock by burning is too great. I also tried an old hair dryer. Unfortunately, a hair dryer will shut off when used continuously as a safety feature. A heat gun does one thing: Supply heat. These things do get hot enough to burn flesh but they don’t shut down just when you need

them most. There are many different brands and price ranges for these. bought a Wagner from a big-box store for less than thirty dollars and it has been indispensable for a small shop like mine. Another thing I use around the shop is a small food scale. I’m talking about one large enough to weigh a rifle, not just a calorie counter. Here is where antique stores and yard sales come into their own. Sometimes that’s the best place to find things like this.

They are not the most accurate scales you can buy, of course, but they give serviceable duty to compare the weight of firearms, among other things. I also use mine in some meat processing chores when I’m butchering a deer. If you want to add so many pounds of beef suet to so many pounds of deer meat for burger, for example, these Making your own is an option but this one doesn’t cost much and works perfectly. This will protect star extractors in any revolver, not just Rugers. little scales are just right.

I got mine extra accessory kit to hold tools at a at a sale for only three dollars and it certain angle which I recommend. looks and works as good as new. Some other tools I recently ac- We all need to sharpen our chisquired really are special and have els, scissors, inletting tools, etc. I menno other purpose but which they tioned the motorized sharpener I purwere intended. That doesn’t make chased from Grizzly Industrial, feathem worthless, since nothing else turing a good 220 grit stone turning in will do.

My Ruger Ejector Retainer a water bath and a belt of leather strop Bit (Brownells #080-432-001) and a on the other side. It’s fairly expensive, matching handle (Brownells #81 Solid but it will turn out some outstanding handle 080-086-181) which completes results if you do your part and should the kit are indispensable for anyone last along time with care. It has an working on Ruger double actions. The

bit fits down over the ejector pin and is perfectly ground to fit the LEFT HANDED SCREW holding the star extractor in the cylinder. This tool makes short work of a job that couldn’t be done without it. You could take the time to make your own but this little gadget is so inexpensive. Related to this area of work is the Brownells Adjustable Extractor Support (#080-720-000). This kit consists of brass mandrels sized .357, .41, .44, and .45 to fit the cylinder of any handgun that has a star ejector.

The brass mandrels hold the extractor securely when removing the extractor rod. For many years we have been inserting empty cases into the cylinders to handle this problem but this tool gives a margin of safety to protect the extractor that we can appreciate if we’ve ever screwed one up. I work on Smith & Wesson DA autos occasionally. Nothing fancy, just a little tuning and cleaning up here and there. One of the pins on some of these guns is notorious for being hard on punches and it is a thin 1/16" at that.

A short punch is needed for the most strength but most of these come from the factory with along shank. Well, I was fortunate enough to break one of my Mayhew punches purchased from Brownells many years ago. Why do I say fortunate? When checking on a replacement I learned about the Brownells Replaceable Pin Punch Set (#080-507-000) that consists of three pin holders and three collets to hold pins matched to gunsmith-related sizes and are easily replaceable to give you a punch as good as new.

Replacement pins are available at very reasonable prices. Now I’m fortunate, since I have a broken punch that is just right to tap out those stubborn pins in the S&Ws We all need to get into nooks and crannies and not just on English muffins. Guns are full of places that are hard to clean. Sometimes the only way to get crud and other debris removed is with picks. Dental

picks made of metal and others made of plastic can be invaluable specialty tools. I’ve also made a few picks of my own from scrap to use in certain places where nothing else will do. I’m always on the lookout for a good pick. Military surplus stores may have some; at least I’ve found some there. Midway sells some plastic picks that are serviceable if you are afraid of scratching a finish but these break more easily than metal. Most of us have the hollow ground screwdriver sets.

Although these sets are fundamental, they don’t have everything you need if you venture beyond the level of a hobbyist. A set of Magna-Tip thin bits from Brownells (#080-120-000) contains around twenty bits to fit the Magna- Tip screwdriver handles varying in thickness from 0.51 mm to 0.63 mm. These bits are useful for those screws that hold fine shotguns together. Trying to take one of these screws out in the middle of a highly engraved area with an ill-fitting bit is a recipe for disaster.

If you do any work on such firearms you need these thin bits. Two other sets I recommend are the hex head and Phillip head bits, (#080- 185-185) along with the Torx head set (#080-435-000) covering you for just about any screw you will encounter in a firearm. Hmmm… looks like one of these scope-mount screws is protruding into the bolt race area. Well, I’ll just hold it with this pair of pliers and option is to make your own. This Mauser pennies.

Check the May 2010 issue ested in the details. take a little off with the old grinder. Pop! When’s the last time you’ve seen that screw after it flew away? What you need is a specialty tool called the Holder Gizzie. What else would you call it? Available from Brownells [contact withheld] this little gem holds small screws for grinding so they are captured securely and can’t disappear into the dark recesses of your shop.

A tool that I would consider highly specialized is a Hawkeye bore scope, available from Gradient Lens Corporation (gradientlens.com). It is expensive but well worth the price. I can’t say how many times I’ve looked down a bore from end to end with my naked eye and pronounced it not bad. One look through a bore scope will reveal the folly in that kind of thinking. Copper fouling, tool marks on the rifling, pits and all kinds of other imperfections are easily "scoped out" with the Hawkeye.

An accessory is the camera adapter that will let you take quality pictures of the inside of a bore. It is even available with a video adapter that will allow you to view what the scope sees in real time. There is nothing else like this tool to present show and tell for your customer. us to take quality pictures of the There is nothing else to do except make one. That’s what I did when I was working on a lot of Mauser actions for sporterizing.

Holding the action in your hands to shape and polish is not a good option; some kind of holder is necessary. I made one from some shop scrap in the form of angle iron. It’s not hard to do. I made holders for small and large ring actions as well as the bottom metal for both. It cost me a couple of bucks and a little time. Brownells has a great holder for Mauser actions and you may want to go that route. You can check out my design in the May 2010 issue of American Gunsmith. It’s not pretty but it does the job.

These are just a few of the tools available to today’s gunsmith. I can remember when a gunsmith was expected to make his own checkering tools and a lot of other things that are needed. With input from many gunsmiths around the country, manufactures have listened and try to supply us with the tools we need. The old days had their appeal but we have more tools to help us now than ever before. AG