47 Gunsmith Shop

This log structure was located just inside the County line on the Old Hickory Lincolnton Highway. It served as an outbuilding next to the old Civil War hospital in the Dr. Eli Crowell estate.

The gunsmith was required to be a master of tool making, iron working, and blacksmithing and the arts of fine relief sculpture and inlay. The earliest and most widely available guns in the Appalachian settlements were the muzzle-loaded flintlock long rifles, a dramatic development in arms.

It had a barrel in which the bore had been rifled through a series of shallow spiral grooves that had been cut into the metal walls so the bullet spins giving it stability and accuracy. This was an improvement over the earlier Smooth bored muskets.

It is thought that German immigrants who settled in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania area, were instrumental in introducing rifle making in this country.

The American long rifle, so-called the "Kentucky rifle", had the popular octagonal barrel used in the late 18th. and early 19th. Century. Its barrel length was usually 40 inches and it had a graceful stock of plain or slightly curly maple, a brass patchbox and one or two silver inlays. The relief carving was simple and sparse.

A type of long rifle evolved in the Tennessee and North Carolina mountains that was almost without decoration or inlay. This was probably prompted by the conditions in the area, notably an area of settlers who could not afford the artistic rifles.

It is very unlikely that a gunsmith in the Catawba Valley would have access to rifle making equipment of the quality seen in this shop. There are a few people in the country today who can actually build a long rifle from beginning to end.

Barrel making first required heating a flat bar of iron in the forge and then placing it in the swage block and welding the edges together starting from the middle around a long rod called a mandrel. It was felt that 22 pounds of wrought iron was needed to make a 6 to 8 pound rifle barrel because of all that is lost in heating and re-heating, grinding, and filing.

The barrel was then hammered into eight flat sides giving the rifle its style. Next the barrel was anneried (heated) to a dull red and buried in the hot coals of the forge to cool slowly. It was then placed in a boring machine (seen in the center of the room) where successive larger bits, some 12 to 15, bored the barrel evenly.

The shavings were saved for flux. Next the barrel was grooved at the rifling machine (located on the left wall) where spiral grooves were cut into the inside of the barrel using a bit with two steel teeth. The last step was to finish the octagonal barrel by grinding it to its exact shape (machine located next to the window).

This shop represents the birth of a new trade at Hart Square and with time we hope to enlarge our knowledge and collection in gunsmithing. There were several gunsmiths working in our area during the 1800's.

Some early records show that Abraham Cook and his son, Abraham, Jr. were local gunsmiths in the early 1800's. Henry Huffman and his son, Henry Hovis Huffman, built rifles here throughout the 19th. Century, as did John Peterson and his father, Samuel. W. E. Jones practiced gunsmithing in the Little Mountain area during the late 1800's.