A question for some of the custom riflesmiths.

What ever happened to the custom riflesmith Phil Pilkington? He was in Enid, Oklahoma was a highly regarded craftsman of the trade. Put on a custom rifle seminar back in the 80's in Enid. It was attended by some well known writers and custom rifle builders. Ken Warner, Jim Carmchel, Bill Dowtin, Ron Lampert and Joe Balickie. He taught stock design and layout, stock finishing, checkering, rust bluing, and action polish and honing.

I know in the past he has marketed stock finish through Brownells. Possibly rust blue too.

I'd like to attend that seminar...

He still markets stock finish, stain, and rust blue through Brownell's- I use them often- all good stuff.

At 20 to 30 bucks a bottle though, he's probably resting comfortably on his laurels...

I attended the 2nd Pilkington class in 1983. Phil taught his rust blue process as well as stock design, creation, finish, and checkering. Ron Lampert handled the metal portion of the 2nd class also.

The class was comprised of professionals, part-time smiths, and just plain gun aficionados. One of the attendees was Ed Kane, a very good engraver at the time, who went on to engrave the ACGG #15 Browning Superposed.

Phil was an interesting and opinionated teacher. He had a wealth of knowledge about the art and the people in the industry. I thoroughly enjoyed the week. Sadly, I have not kept contact with the other attendees.....I wish I had.

Several attempts by myself and others have yielded nothing about his current activities. Nor anything about Ron Lampert. They were both at the top of their respective professions at the time. Seems strange....

GV

Grandview

Thanks for the information. I had read about Pilkington in a Gun Digest book "Custom Guns" edited by Ken Warner back around 1985.

I became interested in his rust bluing technique of using fumes created by combining nitric and hydrochloric acid. It appeared to be an easier method while obtaining the same results.

I wish there was more NRA short courses put on by the "masters" in regard to classic rifles. Instead of the standard college instructors although there are some talented ones.

There is a long list of people in the industry whose talents will be lost when they are gone. It is a shame there is no organized effort to get these people to pass on their "secrets" before that happens. Some of them have contributed to the art but many more have not.

To give one example, Fred Wells. This gentleman is somewhere in his 80s. He has been building 98 Mauser design actions from scratch for years from Kurz to Square Bridge Magnums with integral side mounts. He is a giant is his field. What I would give to tutor under such talent.

I am mostly self taught through an extensive library of gunsmithing books, networking, and sometimes even a little bit of industrial espionage, but there is so much more beyond that to be gained through doing and having a mentor to guide you.