Paperwork chasing

[kings6]

The knee was telling me that I needed to spend some “elevated” time yesterday so I decided to try and organize the information in the various Manila envelopes and hanging folders to consolidate paperwork for the various guns in the safe.

As I wrap up my custom gun journey I realized I needed to consolidation as many notes, correspondence and receipts for each of the remaining guns. At least as much as is possible for a gun commissioned close 15-20 years ago.

As I’ve shared before, I developed my own personal system when I started getting into custom revolvers. Rather than simply sending a base gun off and a lust of upgraded I’d like the ‘smith to change or add I decided I wanted to be a little more involvement in the process. This meant I would try to find as many of the new parts as possible so when the gun was sent off, as many of the new parts as possible were already sourced. This not only met me feel like I had a part in the project but it also let me spread the cost of the project out a little AND it meant the gunsmith did not have to spent time chasing these parts nor gif they have to spend their money securing these parts.

What this did was mean that there was often a group of parts invoices to keep track of and tie to the project they were meant for. Initially I just stuck all these parts receipts in a “Parts” file so I had a bunch of matching of receipts to gun files to do. Luckily it went pretty well but I did realize a few things that I really messed up on early on.

The biggest screw up early in my journey was getting g so excited about the end product that I totally blipped on keeping any records at all! Luckily I realized my mistake fairly early and I only have one custom that is record-less. Unfortunately the maker of this early gun is no longer working and doesn’t have the old records.I have a second one I have contacted the maker about and he is working on finding his copy of the paperwork to help flesh out the file.

Lessons learned for you folks just starting your custom journey, keep copious notes and records of each of your builds! This includes even records of things or work you traded during the build process either with others for parts of base guns or things you might have traded to the gunsmith. Whether the gun becomes an heirloom gun you pass to the next generation or if if is one you decide to rehome later, having the records as complete as possible is a good idea and investment.

[500fksjr]

+1

[blacktailslayer]

I keep a notebook for each of the customs that I build. It documents what I want done on the first page and then each item gets its own page for details of how I went about doing the work, parts to purchase and from where, how much, etc. It is a living document that gets updated from the planning stages, though the build and after it is completed. It is then the story of that gun for my family after me to understand what it took to make that gun what it is.


Don D.

[x101airborne]

Unfortunately for me, when I found a John Gallagher custom Super Blackhawk in a forgotten case at a gunstore and brought it home for pennies on the dollar, John did not keep any records whatsoever so there was no way to certify the weapon as one of his. I sent him pictures and he said it was "probably" his work but could not guarantee it to be so. Had the paperwork been secured, the weapon would be worth 10 times what I paid for it. I am glad to hear you are keeping track. I know these things can stretch out decades going to different smiths.

[clintsfolly]

I have a reported to be a Gallagher 32 mag. Had a nice talk with his son and he looked at the pictures and it was probably his Dad,s work but had no way to prove or disprove. So I enjoy it as is! With proper paperwork it would be worth probably double.