What I remember most about Ole’s shop was his workbench which was a heavy wooden bench with a large pile of the most wonderful chisels at one end, each one of his chisels had a beautiful light colored hardwood handle with the initials EO carved in it, the blade of each chisel was ground and then polished with a buffing wheel so that it shined brightly and was as sharp as a straight razor. Ole was well over six feet tall with very large hands, but was as skilled as a surgeon; I remember watching him inlet a stock for a sidelock double, and after checking the fit, using one of his chisels to remove a perfect paper thin shaving of walnut, when he was done the stock had an absolutely perfect wood to metal fit. He once told me that a customer had brought him a European shotgun and wanted the stock to be inletted so that it fit perfectly on the inside surfaces, not just on the outside, when the customer came to pick up his gun, Ole had to take the locks out to show him that it was perfectly fitted up on the inside surfaces too. Ole was also a master at matching and fitting pieces into damaged or broken stocks, some of the repairs were so well done that you couldn’t see the line where the piece was spliced in, another thing that amazed me was that he was so skilled with his chisels that when he got done shaping a stock, it was smooth and perfect with only a minimum of sanding necessary before the finish was applied. Ole’s favorite remark was “Ya, ve vill get to it right avay.”
Last edited by Schutzenbob; 11/06/10 06:00 PM.
