On Mar 18, 6:43*am, "pintlar" wrote:

* * *Years ago ('50's) in one of the old Popular Science type mags there was
a 'readers speak'
article where a man made his own threading dies
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Everyone who has had to make a die... or even chores as common-place
as making a leaf-spring ...knows we stand on the shoulders of those
who have gone before us.

When faced with such a chore I'll reach for a catalog ninety-nine
times out of a hundred. But it is how well we are able to accomplish
that hundredth chore -- something as simple as making a leaf-spring
for an old rifle, pistol or shot-gun -- that defines our abilities
as a machinist, gun-smith or what-have-you.

Nowadays, what with oil- and water-hardening steel available in an
almost infinite variety of thicknesses, widths and lengths, making
such a spring ENTIRELY from scratch is similar to being able to
fabricate shoes for a Shetland pony. Or even more tricky, for an ox
(!!).

Since being diagnosed as having cancer I know a lot of these skills
will die with me. That makes me almost as unhappy as the thought of
death itself.

-Bob