http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pitt.../s_536309.html

Teaching a stock in trade in Avalon
By Bobby Kerlik
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, November 5, 2007


Ever since he was a kid, Gary Holloway has been taking guns apart and learning how they work.
Now he gets paid to teach others how to do it.

Holloway, 52, of Baden, is one of three instructors at the Pennsylvania Gunsmith School in Avalon, one of only two private gunsmith schools in the country.

"I was always fascinated with firearms as a kid. I would take apart every gun in my father's rack, and as I went into the military, I did a lot of this on my own," Holloway said, with a machine humming behind him as a student drilled a hole in a gun barrel.

Holloway teaches first-semester students how to disassemble guns without damaging them and how to sand, buff and polish the metal. He teaches the process of bluing, an oxidation process that protects the steel from corroding and gives it a bluish-black tint.
"I want to teach them to look at a firearm from a professional point of view," Holloway said. "I want people who look at these guns to be impressed."

Students learn to chisel a wooden stock -- the butt-end that rests against the body -- and to make or repair parts. Some students, such as George Minick, learned to make a gun from scratch.

Minick, 36, of Dormont quit his job as a computer specialist at a local bank to take gunsmithing classes.

"Initially, I want to work for someone else doing this type of work," Minick said as he worked on part of his handmade gun, which was halfway done after two months of work. "I've always been interested in this stuff."

A retired 27-year veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard, Holloway already had experience as a weapons specialist. He came to the gunsmith school as a student and graduated in 2001.

"When I was ready to graduate, they were looking for a teacher," Holloway said. "I had wanted to open my own shop, but I thought, 'This is really enjoyable.'

"I feed off (the students') enthusiasm."

He never had been in Pennsylvania before enrollment. Now he lives in Beaver County with his wife, Theresa. He has two adult children, Betty, 32, and Greg, 29.

"If a gun is passed down from a grandfather, and he's not still in this world, to them, that gun is very important," Holloway said.

Ed Hughes, 18, of Cranberry, learned to recondition a .22-caliber rifle by hand under Holloway's guidance.

"Anybody can use a machine," said Hughes, who got an A-minus on the project. "This job took four days to do by hand."

Robert Thacker, vice president of the 58-year-old school, said that as the number of gunsmiths dwindles, the demand for graduates increases.

"There's not as much interest in this particular field as in the past," Thacker said.