Holy crap.... Apparently there's a
ton of really bad 'smiths out there, according to the posts above.. Sure doesn't help the profession..
I wouldn't say bad gunsmiths are the problem. There are definitely some real hacks out there plus a lot of times these days any guy who can put together an AR-15 calls himself a "Gunsmith", but the more prevalent issue I've seen is people who are really good at their craft but absolutely suck at running a small business.
They can't plan their time, there's no boss telling them to get to work so they waste half of each day BS'ing with customers, all kinds of things. So they get into a hole and their customers start complaining about missed deadlines or work done poorly since it was rushed at the last minute. They get flustered or their egos won't let them believe it's their fault so they just make more and more promises to get past the immediate irate phone call, or some will dig their heels in and get more and more obstinate.
With some rare exceptions the best gunsmithing operations I've seen are where a front person takes the orders and handles customers and the skilled craftsmen are in the back turning out 8 hours of quality work each day.
Added: or they marry a good woman and let their wives handle the business while they work. My cousin went to school to be a diesel mechanic and opened his own shop. He hired a couple of guys as helpers but all he did was work in the shop. His wife ran the front desk and did all of the bookkeeping, scheduling, billing and such. Didn't take that long and they had a thriving business with lots of referrals and repeat customers.
