By Larry B. Schuknecht
In October of 2007 members of our group- The New York State Firearms Study Group ( the students of Swinney) aided the staff at the Genesee Country Village and Museum in preparing their Gun Shop displays for winter storage. While doing that John Holland and I were allowed to photograph the gunmakers tools. Following are sliders showing those tools.
Almost all of the small tools that are shown came from the shop of Amos P. Wood of North Hamden, N.Y. who worked from about 1860 to 1924. He was born about 1842 and apprenticed to A. D. Bishop of Worcester, N.Y. He worked until shortly before his death on Feb. 22, 1924 at the age of 82.
First the machinery in the Gunmakers shop.
Next I will show the barrel reaming tools.
Below are the rifling rods and a rifling lapping rod. Most of the rifling rods were labeled on the end with a name or initials which we assume indicated the owner of the rifle that it was used to make, thereby allowing the worn rifling in that gun to be recut at a later date.
Next I will show the Taps and Die Stocks
The next two sliders show a large variety of Bullet mold cherries, all hand made by A. P. Wood and miscellaneous taps, wrenches, etc.
The next slider shows three hand made stamps used by A. P. Wood.
The last slider shows bullet mold halves and their wooden pattern and an assortment of raw parts.
The image below shows two wooden stock patterns.
