Finding a gunsmith who is competent, timely in their work and easy to communicate with has turned out to be difficult for me. There are good gunsmiths where I live, but none of them are SxS specialists. I had a set of LC Smith barrels blued locally, for a lot more money then initially quoted, and it was done poorly. I lived with them for several years, but was unhappy. A friend put me in touch with a gunsmith out east with a national, and deserved, reputation for quality work. I talked with him and he said he would inspect my barrels and reblue them at a fair price and get them back in two months. Three months later I called him and he explained why he had not touched my barrels yet. This guy is an "artist", so I waited. With polite monthly phone calls to check on things he finally inspected them after 5 months and said they would be finished in 2 weeks. His voice mail was then always full and he never returned an email. Two months later he actually answered the phone and explained about all the work ahead of my barrels. I never was able to communicate with him after that. After 10 months I talked to my friend, who spends many thousands of dollars a year in this guys shop, to please intervene. His phone call was, of course, returned. My barrels had not yet been blued, but they were done in the next batch and I got them back a month later. No apology or explanation for the extra time. My 2 month job took 11 months and I don't know if I would have ever gotten them back without my friend. Needless to say this fellow is not getting any more work from me. He apparently does not care about pleasing clients. His work is often raved about, and he is quite talented. I no longer care about how great a gunsmith is if he is unable to come even close to a promised delivery time. I have found a small group of craftspeople who can do excellent work in a timely manner and are a pleasure to communicate with. I just had a scalloped box lock restocked in 5 weeks, and it is superb. It was also not mind boggling expensive. Also just had someone else work on my AE Fox that needed some mechanical work and a full reblue of all parts, including filing and polishing. Took 6 weeks and looks wonderful. I'll be bringing him more work. I'm a professional and if I treated my clients the way many gunsmiths treat their clients I would go out of business. The excuse that they are artists and craftsmen and should be excused for this behavior just does not cut it with me.
Good luck,
Jeff
