This topic crops up here from time to time. The solution seems so obvious. When two weeks becomes two months, if there is no verifiable and justifiable reason, you pick up the gun and take your business elsewhere. That smith does not deserve your business or your money. When two weeks becomes two years, that is way beyond unacceptable in almost any circumstance, unless he's doing the job for free.
As Mike (Der Ami) pointed out, customers can be just as unreasonable, expecting a gunsmith to perform miracles because they waited until the day before hunting season to have a repair done. They deserve to be shown the way to the door.
Don't we see the work of extremely talented gunsmiths like Dewey Vicknair right here, who manages to build complete and gorgeous guns from scratch, or perform extensive modifications which border on fine artwork, in far less time than some of these irresponsible guys can manage to do a bluing or checkering job?
You can't easily be held hostage like this if you simply refuse to be a victim.
