_The Gunsmith and his Trade._—Few trades present so little regular routine as does that of the gunsmith. In most trades it is the same thing over and over again; but, with the exception of taking the gun to pieces and putting it together; and, perhaps, of tempering, case-hardening and the like, the gunsmith may work regularly for a long time without being called upon to do precisely the same thing twice. As a consequence, the gunsmith must be merely an ingenious mechanic or worker in metals, capable of thinking deeply and searching out causes and requirements—there is little need of his being anything more. The gun, in all its forms, is only a machine, and a simple one at that—so simple as to be easily understood by any one capacitated for making an intelligent study of machinery. _Fitting up a Shop._—The specialties to claim the attention of the gunsmith in fitting up his shop if his means are limited may be few. It will be about like fitting up the shop of any general worker in metals. He will need a forge, an anvil and a vise; in a word he will need a light but complete set of blacksmith’s tools, to begin with. This outfit will be his foundation, so to speak; and he can add to it such smaller tools as judgment and experience may suggest as wanted; such, for instance, as a hand-vise or two, cutting-pliers, bending-pliers, holding-pliers, small files of various shapes, small drills, a screw-plate or two, a few gravers, and so on. He might have many special tools, such as could not be bought at the ordinary hardware store, or at any house dealing in outfits for the general worker in metals, but for ordinary repairing, he will not have much need of them. Among the special tools that he will be compelled to have will be a rifle-guide, a few sets of rifle-saws and a few mould-cherries. These with proper instructions he can make himself if he finds he cannot buy them cheaper than he can make them. There are a few specialties in the way of tools or machines for gunsmiths that are offered to the trade by houses dealing in gunsmith’s materials, and some of them may be found very useful as labor-savers, but the gunsmith _can_ get along without them if he does not wish to buy. Prominent among these is a mainspring-vise or clamp, which has several advantages over the common hand-vise sometimes employed for clamping the mainspring. It would be well to look after these things, and to adopt them in every case where it appeared beyond question that they could be made to pay. There is no occasion to speak against any of the specialties that may be presented to the attention of the trade—of their merits the party most concerned must be his own judge. CHAPTER VI. TAKING APART, CLEANING AND PUTTING GUNS TOGETHER.