How long to make a rifle back in 1800?

[Zonie]

Although I have no idea how long it really took the old time craftsmen to build a rifle I agree with robrmcc. The speed real experts can work at is sometimes almost unbelievable.

Take Bob Ross's paintings for instance.
I can't count the times I watched him on TV start by swabbing the canvas with some color and then proceed to pick up one brush after another and wave them on the canvas and the picture would seem to just appear. He did that even while telling folks what he was doing.

I've seen other craftsmen build things out of wood, taking seconds to make the cuts that would take me minutes or longer to do.

They've done it so many times they don't even have to think about how to do it. They just do it.

 

[Coot]

Personally I don't believe for a minute that it took 400 hours to build a typical rifle back in the day (and I really don't care about the precise century since we are talking about all components made from scratch). I think the majority of people simply don't understand or appreciate how much faster and more precise a lot of tradesmen worked back then. Nor how hard they could work. Case in point we had an old school blacksmith in town back when I was just a kid. He was old then and this was likely 55 years ago. He could put a new point on a harrow tooth in 30 seconds and shoe a horse in under half an hour. I have seen modern blacksmiths take far longer to do these simple tasks. Not reflecting poorly on the modern blacksmith, they just don't have the same incentives to work quickly. That said I do believe apprentices were likely very common as well and apprentices were worked like dogs back then. The same thing applied to my Dad who would have been 105 this year. He grew up with horses and pitchforks, stooks and loose hay. What he could do with a pitchfork and loose hay was almost miraculous. You never see that kind of skill level with these menial tasks. He could also work flat out for 10-12 hours a day with pauses only for meal breaks. I have never seen men since my Dad's generation who could work so hard all day long. Maybe I am wrong, but I don't think a gun maker even back then could support himself building only 5-8 rifles a year.

I agree that only building 5-8 rifles a year would not support a family. But, building rifles was only part of what many did. Repair work was frequently mentioned in surviving records and outside of larger towns/cities, many tradesmen of all types were also part time farmers. The 1790 census shows that the most common occupation in the Valley of Virginia was "farmer/........" with cooper, blacksmith, joiner, etc etc being an 'off season' trade or occupation during the growing or winter months when crops did not require the full time efforts of planting or harvesting. Owning land was a huge part of social status - it meant that even if you worked with your hands, you were still somebody.

 

[nhmoose]

There was not many distractions back then unless it was a new young wife.

Work made time go by faster than not working.

Kind of the same today.