I remember back in the early 70's when I was new at gun building. I was being shown some building techniques by an old friend named Fred Anderson Riley. I asked him if he ever made mistakes. He replied that everyone makes mistakes and you just have to do the best you can to hide them. Sometime later he was showing me a rifle he just finished and of course, it was amazing except one thing I immediately noticed. It was unusual for him to engrave his full name on a rifle but there it was on the top flat of the gun was his full name but the "s" had been left out of Anderson. I asked him if when he was in grammar school a couple of hundred years ago if they did not teach him how to spell his name. Anyone could tell he was a retired navy man by the long string of expletives he spouted out.
I loved that grumpy old man and thought the world of him. He surprised me one time with a birthday gift of a powder horn that he had put in many hours of his masterful work into. I was totally surprised and brought to tears. It is still a prized possession that I keep locked in my safe. Many wonderful memories from back then.