How a Westley Richards is made

[UKHunter]

 

[PARA45]

For some strange reason, I was expecting to see a bunch of real old guys working on these beautiful guns. Boy, was I wrong.

 

[Rifleman97]

For some strange reason, I was expecting to see a bunch of real old guys working on these beautiful guns. Boy, was I wrong.

Their culture of bringing in young people and having a proper apprenticeship program to keep bringing in young people will keep them and their craft going for a long time. Too many industries don’t want to share “secrets” with “outsiders.” This is why violin making is dying, and piano building/rebuilding is dying, coming from a rare young person in the piano rebuilding industry. Bunch of old guys with the secrets and none of them want to retire or pass down their knowledge, many of them claim it’s because “young people don’t want to work so why should I hire them” which causes a feedback loop.

 

[uplander01]

Thanks for posting the video, to see it actually happen on the screen is really cool. First thought is what a cool job building such beautiful things by hand,....but then the other side of my brain realizes that none of those shop guys probably make enough money to ever buy and go use such things in the hunting fields of africa.

 

[VertigoBE]

Thanks for posting the video, to see it actually happen on the screen is really cool. First thought is what a cool job building such beautiful things by hand,....but then the other side of my brain realizes that none of those shop guys probably make enough money to ever buy and go use such things in the hunting fields of africa.

I suppose that most who graduate to Master level, will be able to build one themselves. At least that’s what I would do

 

[Rifleman97]

I suppose that most who graduate to Master level, will be able to build one themselves. At least that’s what I would do

You're right on the money. Although as someone in an extremely similar position to them (but instead of 100k guns, its 100k pianos) it can very quickly get to be one of those "mechanics don't fix their own cars" scenarios, just too little energy after work to basically go do the same work for several hours at a time, after work at home.

 

[mdwest]

I’d think they’d run into a couple of problems trying to build their own…

I can’t imagine that the UKs firearms laws would make it easy for anyone to do a DIY build no matter how skilled a craftsman they may be…

Here in the US I just decided one day that I wanted to start building bolt action rifles… so I started doing it… I’ve built about a dozen at this point… no issues at all… I’d guess if anyone in the UK found out I was building a fine sporting rifle in my garage, I’d be in jail in a matter of hours..

The other challenge I think is each of the craftsmen appear to have a very specific set of skills that they are among the best in the world at.. but those skills are limited and few.. the guy doing the metal work isn’t the same guy that’s doing the wood work… which is a different guy that’s doing the fitting.. which is a different guy that’s doing the engraving.. which is a different guy than who is doing the regulating.. etc…

And since Westley Richard’s is only turning out a total of 30 firearms a year.. my guess is each of those guys do t get a whole lot of opportunities to practice the other skills to any level of perfection that would lead them to building a London (or Birmingham) “best” for themselves in their off time..

I get the impression that when we’re talking about these top tier UK finest type rifles that it takes the proverbial village to raise that child.. no one person has all the tools, skills, knowledge, and experience necessary to do it alone..

 

[Rifleman97]

I’d think they’d run into a couple of problems trying to build their own…

I can’t imagine that the UKs firearms laws would make it easy for anyone to do a DIY build no matter how skilled a craftsman they may be…

Here in the US I just decided one day that I wanted to start building bolt action rifles… so I started doing it… I’ve built about a dozen at this point… no issues at all… I’d guess if anyone in the UK found out I was building a fine sporting rifle in my garage, I’d be in jail in a matter of hours..

The other challenge I think is each of the craftsmen appear to have a very specific set of skills that they are among the best in the world at.. but those skills are limited and few.. the guy doing the metal work isn’t the same guy that’s doing the wood work… which is a different guy that’s doing the fitting.. which is a different guy that’s doing the engraving.. which is a different guy than who is doing the regulating.. etc…

And since Westley Richard’s is only turning out a total of 30 firearms a year.. my guess is each of those guys do t get a whole lot of opportunities to practice the other skills to any level of perfection that would lead them to building a London (or Birmingham) “best” for themselves in their off time..

I get the impression that when we’re talking about these top tier UK finest type rifles that it takes the proverbial village to raise that child.. no one person has all the tools, skills, knowledge, and experience necessary to do it alone..

I do imagine if they're willing to get the gun license, they can save up to buy a barreled action, and stock it themself, or engrave it themself. The other task can be done via favors for someone else doing the same thing. For example I specialize in replacing piano soundboards, but I'm bad at action work. When I rebuilt my piano I made a deal with a coworker that I would make his soundboard if he did my action work, tit for tat. In the case of guns they need to get their license and save up to get the base components, but if any amount of them wanted to (and I bet they do) they could pretty easily do that. Since legally the "gun" is the barreled action, they are in the clear from "manufacturing firearms" unless England has some law that engraving patterns or sanding a wood stock legally makes you a "firearms manufacturer", which is possible, I don't know the extremes of the gun laws there.