Wheellock Forum Archive

How to – Class coming soon!

I have always admired functional art. Art disguised with another purpose…
Mix intelligent, inspiring, and creative art with black powder and noise. I was hooked!
As I have experienced, “Art is not an object. It is the excitement inspired by the object.”
When I go into a museum, I don’t say “I want that!”, I say, “I want to build that !”
After a health scare a few years ago, I decided to do what I said I would do “later” in life, and started to develop the skills necessary to create such objects.
Wheel locks and flintlocks are simple in function. However, it is the highly ornate, almost over the top, decoration pieces that inspire (actually yell at…) me to build one.
These ornate masterpieces are at the top end of the spectrum of engineering and art.
It takes a unique combination of skills to design, develop, and decorate these objects of precision and beauty!
Besides the engineering skills necessary to make the object function, additional sculpting & engraving skills must mastered. Yet it is the ornamentation that is most prominent.
One is drawn to art visually. Therefore, the “Art” needs to be as, if not more, precise in its design & execution than the engineering. Visually it has to make sense.
To get this right.. One has to do research.

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NMLRA – Gun Seminar 2025 – Wheellock Building Class