School preserves American gunsmithing traditions

WOODBURY, Ky. (WBKO/Gray News) -Deep within the heart of Kentucky, the Hershel House Woodbury School has dedicated itself to preserving a part of our nation’s past.

Students are learning and living history by forging metal, carving wood and mastering the centuries-old art of building flint lock rifles from scratch.

“It all really kind of started with Hershel,” said instructor Gary Ludwig. “He, at a young age, was fascinated by muzzle-loading rifles and he started a career of building guns on his own, learning the old ways to build guns instead of all the power tools. Everyone in the class is making the same gun, along the same lines, along the same ways that Hershel would have built that gun.”

The long rifle was a muzzle-loaded weapon that was used as far back as the 1700s for hunting and warfare on the American frontier.

At the Hershel House Woodbury School, the process for building the handmade weapons utilizes House’s take on the rifle, which was featured in Foxfire V, a long-running magazine-turned-book series that catalogued the history and traditions of southern Appalachia.

“The gun starts out as a big block of wood and ends up as a finely crafted rifle. You hear the term, ‘Lock, stock and barrel.’ Those were the most important pieces of a firearm. You had to have a good barrel. You had to have a good, reliable lock, and you had to have a really strong piece of wood to hold all that together. Everything else was just fluff,” Ludwig explained.

After passing away in 2024, House’s family, students and friends have continued his legacy of preserving the past by teaching his methods of gunsmithing and weapon crafting to those who wish to learn.

“He was our mentor to us, to me, a lot of the gun builders out there, and we felt like the best way to honor him was to try to carry on that education and tradition. He had a vision for this place after he left this earth. He wanted this place to be a museum and an educational center. So, that’s what we’re all about here these days,” Ludwig said.

Along with gunsmithing, the school aims to preserve other American traditions through education, including the crafting of brooms, knives and tomahawks.