When a kid hanging out w/dear old Dad down stairs in his winter workshop , while he was stocking 98"s , 03-A3's , P-14 's , and P-17's , and the occasional busted stock SBS shotgun , for fun , I could see this black long m/l stock blank hanging up in the rafters. Asked him about it , and he just said , John , the old black smith at the coal mine repair shop gave it to him. Had I only known , even an inkling about m/ler's , back when a kid , I could have kept the black walnut blank for a m/l rifle. I shot my first muzzle loading gun in about 1961 , a Dixie GW's 16 Ga. shotgun my cousin brought for me to see. In the next ten yrs. , the learning curve was steep towards muzzle loading , as a full time hobby. I wanted a m/l rifle so bad , I decided to try to build my own. My dad's friends brought an original late half stock , or two , needing mechanic work, and I fixed them into shooting condition. Finally , my Uncle coughed up a piece or two of Greene Co. , Pa. , dried walnut from his furniture making stash. Two were long enough to make a couple Plains rifles from the blue prints found in DGW's catalog. My next challenge was a long rifle. By then it was 1970 , and a local M/L shooting club had formed , making the fever to build a long rifle uncontrollable. A guy came to me w/ a longrifle to build for him. He had all the parts , but no way to build any rifle. That's about when I began to collect logs , and have a local saw mill , cut them into slabs to dry. By 1975 , I had chewed through the best wood from the first 1000 board ft. of dried stock wood. The best put back for stock blanks , and the rest went to a buddy building work bench tops. Then , in 1975 , I found Fred Miller , who had built his own m/ling stock shaping machine. Soon, He bought a Don Allen m/l stock shaping machine , and the flood gates opened. From then on , building a m/ling rifle was easier. Stock patterns for the various original schools of m/l making were hard to come by , and slowly, we were able to come up with a few originals to copy on the Don Allen machine. Stock wood became easier to get , the local saw mill operators held out the best wood and delivered to Fred's , and he just rotated the dry blanks into stock wood , and stored the green wood to dry it. By this time , we could build most any kind of common m/l we wanted. It's been a dream , the last 50+ yrs. of a fantastic hobby. Desire , ambition , and recreating history , who could ask for more...........oldwood