In the 1980's and early 1990's, the biggest gunsmithing concern in the area was mostly pure gunsmithing... really didn't have a store front, although if you knew where he was could walk into a 'kind of" store front about the size of an elevator.
Would be the master smith and two or three aprentice smiths doing most of the work at benches along the walls. He'd go from place to pace, checking the work, and directing them...would take over at a ticklish moment, but generally he stayed as a slave driver (I know..was one of the slaves for a summer).
Had a few people of color (and down here in new Orleans,with a long history of Creole/ Islanos/ freen people of color/ etc...it can mean a lot of things besides what the rest of the world thinks of as black and white) that passed though over the years. Stick with it, and you'd learn enough to be a competent fitter-of-parts. Really put in the time and you could learn to be a decent maker-or-parts.
But he lost that shop (liked the drink a bit too much, and a few other laws that got bent)... then the hard headed old b. didn't get out of St. Bernard in time in 2005 and is assumed drowned (unidentified dead).
So yes...have seen gunsmiths of color in training...and suspect at least some of them learned enough to make a go of it.
Would be the master smith and two or three aprentice smiths doing most of the work at benches along the walls. He'd go from place to pace, checking the work, and directing them...would take over at a ticklish moment, but generally he stayed as a slave driver (I know..was one of the slaves for a summer).
Had a few people of color (and down here in new Orleans,with a long history of Creole/ Islanos/ freen people of color/ etc...it can mean a lot of things besides what the rest of the world thinks of as black and white) that passed though over the years. Stick with it, and you'd learn enough to be a competent fitter-of-parts. Really put in the time and you could learn to be a decent maker-or-parts.
But he lost that shop (liked the drink a bit too much, and a few other laws that got bent)... then the hard headed old b. didn't get out of St. Bernard in time in 2005 and is assumed drowned (unidentified dead).
So yes...have seen gunsmiths of color in training...and suspect at least some of them learned enough to make a go of it.
