Hammer Time!

I posted this pic of Trollop Fohty Fo:




But one commenter's and some offline folks' eyes were drawn to this:

Mike W. said... "You know, the really interesting thing about this picture is the hammer.What's the story there? "

Anyone can see that that is part of Aunt Roberta May gunsmithing set! (Aunt Bert for short) A house warming gift a few years back. It came with a set of pretty pliers, screwdriver, tape measure, and wrench. Every piece as elegant as the hammer. A purty set of tools for a purty gal. Carried over on a ship from the Old Country in a your immigrant's haversack and passed through Elles Isle some 267 years ago.

Let me tell you how a typical gunsmithing session goes down for me.

I go to Trollops house with a small screwdriver, knowing there will be 2 or three small screws to deal with. She need to attach new grips and a new rear sight.

The sight is easy, but there is gunk/oil in the screw hole the sight mounts to the frame on. All I have is a screwdriver, so I get a few q-tips and a tooth pick to get the grease on out of there. The right tool for the job. Toothpick.

The toothpick was also vital to apply poor-gunsmith's lock-tite. I put red fingernail polish on screw threads before tightening it down. You might be able to see a dab of red on the paper towel. It might not work perfectly, but it caused no harm and could help.

So to get the new grip on, I have to take the Hogue grips off. Easy enough. There is a little spring steel thingy on the bottom of the grip frame the Hogue uses, so that comes off. There was a pin hold that dealie on, so I used the pretty hammer pictured, the toothpick, and a bottle cap from a Diet Mountain Dew bottle to keep the frame pin from resting on the counter while I hammered away. You needed the toothpick to drive the pin further because with one side flush with the frame you still couldn't pull the pin through.

That finished, I fit the grip and realize that pin I just hammered out was needed to hold the wood on, so, back it went. Tappa tappa tappa. Now the grips go on like they came from the Smith and Wesson factory were made to fit to 629-2. Good reason for that. They were ordered from the Smith and Wesson factory.

There you go. Kitchen table gunsmiffery in all its gory glory. It's like sausage making. Best to not inspect too close.