School details
I have been to the Colorado School of Trades, many years ago. While I was there, the course of 2700+ hours was changed to about 2000 hours for incoming students. I was told that this happened because of the excess VA expenditure to have GI-Bill expense-paid school for so many Veterans that never got any where being Gunsmiths. So many would go to school for an extended vacation, rather than schooling, so the gub'ment pressed, and the school had to realize that losing VA certification would put a crimp on the budget.
All the poor pay-as-you-go students would be forced into the same shortened program. The main difference that I found by talking to the new students was the reduction in the tedious polishing hand-work, and almost halving the stock carving. The level was to carve and fit 5 stocks, with only one being a semi-inlet (semi-shaped), and new students doing 2 from a blank with maybe finishing a semi-shaped buttstock as a third credit.
Now the school (when I last noticed) had a Farrier course (horseshoe fitter) and the gun course was at 1200 hours. That is less than half of the time I spent. If they were efficient in removing superfluous detailing, you might be able to gain more than it might seem at first glance.
The most important thing is the level of skill that the teachers have and how well that they can impart that knowledge.
Case in point: the school had a top-notch instructor for the D & F (design & function) for days and nights. I attended at both times. Doc Kroekle on nights would call for the classroom time (as opposed to shop floor time) by calling over the P.A.---- "BANKRUPTCY CLASS". Nothing like calling a ..... a ....., huh?
The one teacher for beginners would sit at the bench drawing engraving patterns while he waited for you to bring your project for him to examine or grade. Not very pro-active, but it probably was his second job, and was constantly tired from the daily grind for 2 shifts. Another beginner (BASIC class) was a likeable character, but did not seem nearly as well qualified as the long-timer Senior BASIC instructor, at least in some points. You would pick and choose who to ask about something, depending on the difficulty level.
Some of the work was helpful to learn, but much was not designed to help you reach the level of progress to make money. If it takes you a long time to polish a gun for a blue job in school, so what? Try to make money on the outside when you haven't been shown the best way to do efficient and speedy but proper polishing, for example, and your boss will not be pleased that he paid you for 15 hours to finish a gun that he charged $150 to the customer.
I had to polish guns in BASIC class to a mirror polish BY HAND, and they would only issue you a 1/4 sheet of wet-or-dry of each grit. If that paper wore down, push harder, rub longer. In the real world, you would at least use a piece only until it was starting to slow its cut, and grab a new piece. Time is money, at $40 an hour, for example. A piece of paper, a dull drill bit that costs a few dollars to replace, a few special-shape or varied cut files, all the little things that help you work faster, when cost of implements pales in comparison to the loss of productivity; these are tips that I would wish had been emphasized.
I personally had more machine time, especially on the milling machine, than any student known to the teachers, that didn't have an outside job in a shop. I did special projects for the teachers to get more time at brazing, milling, tool sharpening, etc. I got very good at free-hand grinding dull drill bits, and got extra credit from the machine shop instructors.
While I was there, a student came in that had already graduated from the school in Pennsylvania, but came to CST to learn to FIX guns, not carve animals in the sides of rifle stocks. That had been old hat for a long time, but was one of the courses at PSG, just not enough of the mechanical fixing. He was one of the faster-progressing students, for obvious reasons. A few others were real speed demons, too, but most were average, a few were slow and methodical, but a few were time-wasting bastards that made things plod along whenever they would hang around. Watch out for them in your shop, if there is anyone that seems to make progress difficult, give them a broom and point them to the far corner.
So many lessons have to be learned the hard way, and I will admit that my first jobs were done at a woefully slow pace, since the apprehension to do good quality restricted the freedom to plow at full speed in unknown fields. After a bit of outside experience, things got more comfortable and speed was easier. I couldn't have had a better chance than I did by going to CST, but if I hadn't been fortunate enough to try to apply at every single shop in the area, and find the only opening that happened to have been vacant for 6 weeks (with the work piling up), I might never gotten anywhere for a good bit longer.
I have been writing articles about guns and gun work, recently, and you can see a few of them in among my previous posts, along with pictures and a belly full of my informed opinions, at least.
Check out my previous posts for the extended lesson in logical analysis. I do expect to be writing gunsmith articles for the AGI magazine at some point, as well as other publications.
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