GT.....A true American craftsman!!

[rob00000]

Guys, I heard about GT at the forum here and how he was the man to go to for mag repair. I sent him a wooden bottom mag for my 1917 DWM. This gun is all original with all matching parts including the mag. The mag was in sorry shape but I had to do all I could to try to save it. One of the knobs broke off years ago, possibly on the battlefield, who knows. The other knob broke off the mag in transit when the gun was shipped. I reglued that knob back onto the mag with wood glue & sent it to GT hoping & praying he could save my sorry looking original mag. GT emailed me telling me he believed that he could fix it. I left him alone to work on it & only occasionally emailed him to check on it. He later told me that my mag with the damage it had was the hardest most challenging mag that he has faced yet. But, being the craftsman that he is, he didn't give up, send me back my mag & payment. Nope, he rose to the challenge! It took a while but I figured it's best to be patient and leave a true craftsman alone to work at his own pace & time. I knew it would be worth the wait. Well, I received my mag a few days ago & I must say this man, GT, has exceeded my wildest expectations! I know that he spent a lot of time on this mag from some of his emails detailing the work that he did. He had to redo my repair, make a new knob to replace the missing knob. He also made some type of insert on both ends so the knobs were secure & wouldn't snap off. He also had to glue wood shavings (wood dust) into some of the little holes. On top of all that he had to somehow match the color of the new wood with the old 1917 wood. How the hell do you do that? Well, get this! He used old wood (european?) & it matched PERFECTLY!! I really mean PERFECTLY! Also, the side that had a missing knob was all uneven so he somehow cut a piece of wood to match that side as uneven as it was. How the hell he pulled that off is a freaking mystery to me. I'm sorry for the long post but I wanted you all to have some kind of an idea of what this guy had to overcome to complete this repair. I know there are steps and problems that I am not even aware of but this should give you an idea of what he accomplished. In this day & age with pretty much everything made in China, it's rare & a breath of fresh air to encounter an individual such as GT who does things by hand the old fashioned way. A man who knows his craft, who obviously has tremendous pride in his work & let's nothing but the best work leave his shop. Wow! What more can I say? I know that his time & work was worth more then he charged me. I'm attaching a before photo & a couple of after photos. GT, thank you so much! If the old saying is true, that what goes around comes around, then you have a lot of good stuff coming your way GT!!! Rob