Guns as art

[MikePapa1]

Guns as art

By Anonymous

Created 02/13/2011 - 00:00

Never wanted a rifle? avid Price could change your mind.

I am not a gun owner or a hunter, but I'm not particularly against gun ownership. My dad had a collection of rifles and pistols that he inherited from his father, an avid sportsman. I fired his Walther PPK .32 a few times. I also remember shooting a big .45 revolver that nearly broke my wrist. I owned a BB gun as a kid and was a menace to the chickadees in my back yard. But I had not shot a gun in nearly 20 years. As a homeowner I feel relatively safe in New Hampshire without a weapon, and I honestly have no use for a firearm right now.

I don't need a gun, but after meeting David Price of Contoocook I find myself wanting one really, really bad.

I learned about Price from his granddaughter Lily, a flute student of mine. She told me about his work building antique rifles and shooting in competitions with his guns. When she showed me a photo book of his custom-made flintlock rifles, I was stunned by his work. I pored over the pages, marveling at the decorative guns he has built with gold inlay, fiddle back maple and hand-carved stocks.

"Your grandfather built these?" I asked her.

They were beautiful. I just had to meet this man.

Price is a man of the woods. He's lived most of his life along the Contoocook River, hunting and fishing. On a snowy Saturday I stand in the living room of his riverfront home, listening to his story of life along the banks: younger days when the pickerel ran thick and moms let their children live and play in the woods for days at a time. A massive caribou head watches over us as the conversation turns to Price's hunting excursions to Canada.

Price builds highly collectible rifles. He makes flintlock rifles, and only flintlock rifles, one at a time at his small shop. He is relatively famous among gun collectors, and his flintlocks command a high price: They start around $8,000 and can run considerably higher, depending on workmanship, materials and features. Still his demeanor is quiet and reserved in a traditional Yankee way that most locals can appreciate.

Price is no doubt an artist. He is a juried member of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen and has presented at the Smithsonian Folkways Festival in Washington, D.C.

"A few ladies were concerned whether guns should be a part of the festival," he says. But in taking one look a Price flintlock up close, they realized what I was about to learn: that his guns achieve a level of high art.

Price's work blends several different forms of media: metalworking, woodworking, gold and silver-smithing and gun-building. He is adamant about this last title.

"I'm not a gunsmith," he says. "A gunsmith works on modern guns, and I don't have anything to do with that. I'm a gun builder of fine flintlock rifles."

Originally built for King Louis XIII, the flintlock has been around for nearly 400 years. It became popular in European armies by 1630 and eventually made it to the New World. During the Revolutionary War foot soldiers on both side carried flintlocks: the British with their famous "Brown Bess" musket and the Americans with the more accurate long rifle. This is the weapon that won America its freedom. It is also the weapon that the men who ratified the Second Amendment likely had in their homes.

Price's workshop is warm and well lit. A drying rack of rough-cut wood hangs from the ceiling, filled with stump maple, cherry, curly maple and tiger maple. The walls

are covered with hunting photos of Price and his family. Machines for working both metal and wood are scattered throughout the space. Usually Price makes one gun at a time from start to finish. They take two to three months to complete, depending on the features the client requests. On his bench are two identical rifles he's building for his granddaughters. Although he has a waiting list two years long, his grandchildren, who have outgrown the original flintlocks, get to cut in line.

Price is working on the carving along the stock and cheek-piece. With small chisels he cuts beautiful vine and leaf designs in relief along the grip. Since the guns will be identical, Price transfers the design from one to the other, making an imprint with cellophane tape. He shows me sketches he'll later use to inlay intricate designs in silver leaf along the stock and wrist of the gun. To further accent the silver leaf Price will inlay silver wire, a few thousandths of an inch thick, in swirling loops around the gun, trailing off in a decorative "s" shaped slalom pattern.

Sophisticated - and functional

Next, Price gives me a lesson on the "lock" mechanism, which fires the gun. Although the flintlock is considered old technology, it is sophisticated and functional. If you've ever seen a movie about the Revolutionary War, you're familiar with the loading process.

First, a measure of gunpowder is poured down the barrel of the gun. Next, a cloth patch and lead ball are packed into the barrel with a long rod. With the gun now loaded, it must be primed. This is done on the lock mechanism, which sits alongside the barrel right above the trigger.

First, the shooter half-cocks the hammer, a cobra-shaped piece of steel that holds a sharp chunk of flint in its mouth. Directly in front of the hammer is the "frizzen," a steel plate on which the flint will strike, creating a spark. Beneath the frizzen sits the pan, a small bowl into which fine gunpowder is poured. On the inner edge of the pan is the "touchhole," a small opening that leads directly to the gunpowder charge packed inside the barrel. The frizzen is closed, the hammer is cocked backed to full, the trigger set. The gun is now ready to fire.

This entire process takes a minute or two, though Revolutionary War soldiers were able to get two or three shots off in a minute. The trigger pull starts a complex chain reaction. The hammer spring fires the flint forward, striking the frizzen plate, which makes a shower of sparks. The sparks ignite the powder in the pan beneath, which explodes, blowing flames through the touchhole into the powder charge in the barrel. It explodes and propels the ball out of the barrel.

Price demonstrates the process with a lock removed from a gun. Although the loading and priming process is complicated, the final firing sequence happens in the blink of an eye.

Gold, brass, silver

In the rear of Price's workshop is a large bank safe where he keeps his guns. He shows me flintlocks he's built for his clients, each more beautiful than the last. The level of detail on the finished guns is in stark contrast to the roughed-out guns in progress on his workbench.

A rifle he built for his grandson David is made precisely to scale to fit his young hands. The flames in the highly polished wood jump from the grain. Gold, brass and silver inlay dance across the wood. The lock plates, finished in zebra striped Damascus steel, are engraved with high relief floral designs. I'm amazed at the craftsmanship.

In several guns Price has inlaid an elegant ivory hunter's moon. The smiling profile of the man in the moon has become his trademark. To complete each gun Price engraves his name and the year of completion on top of the barrel in flowing script.

Finally, Price shows me his masterpiece: "Midnight Lace."

About a year ago, a gun collector contacted Price about a unique commission. The collector had chosen 10 builders from across the country and challenged them to build for him the ultimate gun possible. Money was no object.

Midnight Lace is a heavy but balanced gun: a swivel loader with two rotating barrels. The cherry wood is stained dark, almost black. Thick bands of gold and silver wire dance like snakes intertwined along the lock-plates and barrel. Atop the barrel and rimming the swivel, Price has chiseled out the steel and inlayed a background of 24-carat gold.

"There's $2,000 of gold in this gun alone," he says.

His signature hunter's moon is inlaid in wooly mammoth ivory along the stock.

It's stunningly beautiful, and Price is immensely proud. Upon its completion Price learned that other builders in the competition had experienced delays, and the collector gave them another year. Price took the news as an opportunity to build another gun better than "Midnight Lace."

"In a year I can top this," he says. He will start over, building another masterpiece from scratch with more even decoration and even more gold.

Target practice

Now it's time to go shooting. Price takes one more gun down from the safe, his own .40 caliber target shooting rifle. We go outside behind his shop to a wooded area, and he staples a fresh paper target to an old cardboard box. He explains the point system of rings on the target: the outer rings worth seven to 10 points each, with a bulls-eye, about the size of a quarter, worth "10X." We pace off 25 yards and Price begins loading. It takes a minute or two in the cold.

When ready, he hands the gun to his granddaughter, Lily, a competitive shooter. She sets the trigger, raises the gun, waits, then touches the trigger. The blast is deafening, much louder than the .22 I used to shoot with my dad. A tongue of flame roars from the barrel and a cloud of smoke puffs from the lock. Lily has hit the target but has not scored. Price reloads for his other granddaughter, Paige. I expect the blast this time, but it still makes my heart jump. Her shot is high, and off the target too.

The girls mumble excuses. Finally it's my turn.

Price walks me through the firing process and lets me dry fire to practice a few times. He reloads and hands me the weapon. I raise it up, finger off the trigger. I eye down the length of the barrel, knocking the 24-karat gold front sight into the rear sight slot. I slow my breathing and aim carefully, letting the gun settle where I want it, right on the 10X ring. Finally I touch the trigger, ever so lightly.

Blam.

The gun leaps in my hands. Through the smoke I see the box jiggle just slightly. There's a clean hole in the 9 ring. Price reloads another round. On my second turn I score a 10, just barely crossing into the 10x line: nearly a perfect shot.

On my way home, I'm thinking about all I've learned. I'm still struggling with this country's conflicts over guns. I can't deny the importance of their role in our history. I support their use for sportsmen and hunters. But I still fear them.

I can't forget the fact that a gun in the hands of the wrong person can create nothing but pain and misery. But after spending the day learning and shooting with David Price, master builder of fine flintlock rifles, I'm reassured that a gun in his hands can bring infinite beauty.

(Mike Alberici of Concord is a professional musician and educator. He is a member of the Monitor's board of contributors.)

Guns as art | Concord Monitor

[Jonnin]

Thanks for sharing this.

Not only are guns often artwork, but even a basic one can be a tribute to engineering, or a simple looking gun can be a masterpiece of accuracy for competetive shooters. The designs of J Browning were so good that we celebrate this year his model 1911, still popular for competetive shooting, defense, and many of those are works of art or of historical significance.

You dance around it, but its what the pro-gun folks have said (mostly to deaf ears) for decades: its not the gun, its the person behind it that can create probems. Same as a car, a sword, a baseball bat, or anything else. Put anything into the hands of a criminal, and dont be shocked if the item in question is used for a crime. In the right hands, firearms are things of great history, beauty, and craftmanship, used daily to save lives, protect freedom, or just for the joy found in the many related sports.

[Guest 65stang]

Found a site with a couple of pics from his work http://tinyurl.com/4utmvw4

[Capbyrd]

Midnight Lace is gorgeous!

Project #23 Midnight Lace

[VERO1]

Little bit nicer than the CVA kit I put together years ago. Not much, but a little.

[peejman]

Wow.

[hipower]

Wow.

Yeah Baby!!!