Hershel House

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Hershel House
Woodbury, KY

Hershel Carmen House, was born July 4, 1941 and grew up in the sleepy little river town of Woodbury, Kentucky. Many folks are surprised when they find out just how “young” he is, as few individuals that share feelings of lust for old rusty rifled guns have not heard stories about the notorious Hershel House. At most every rendezvous, while wandering around visiting campfires at night, you will overhear stories. Tales that colorfully depict hunting lore; everything from him killing deer, or turkey, to limits of squirrels. Many stories are recollections of amazement at his shooting skill. Others are about his gunbuilding ability or the love an individual has for one of his wonderful flintlock rifles or hand-forged knives.

NMLRA South Eastern Rendezvous – Helens, Georgia – Spring, 1984

I think it is so amazing that within our ranks, we truly have a "living legend", an individual that through the years has actually created his own school of flintlock Kentucky rifles. Someone whose personality and philosophies have affected the contemporary longrifle world so much that most everyone involved has at least heard of him.

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The first long rifles that Hershel remembers seeing were in an old store in Jamestown, Kentucky. He says it would have been about 1950. His family had temporarily moved and was living there while his father worked on Wolf Creek Dam that now holds back the Cumberland River and forms Lake Cumberland. About 1956 and after moving back to Butler County, Hershel found an old half-stocked percussion squirrel rifle in Mrs. Gibbs’s barn. A long time family friend, he asked her if he could have it. It had belonged to her father, but she let Hershel have it anyway. He promptly fixed it, got it firing, and received a tremendous amount of pleasure from hunting squirrels with it.

Hershel and the half-stock percussion rifle found in Mrs. Gibbs Barn - 1957

Hershel started building guns full time in the summer of 1967. Through his years as a gunbuilder he continues to go through recognizable "phases" or stylistic "trends”. In the early years his greatest influence was Joe Kindig’s book, "Thoughts on the Kentucky Rifle in its Golden Age”. Thus, his first guns followed the "Golden Age" style of Pennsylvania’s gunbuilding "schools”. Most of these early guns were brass mounted, a feature rarely found on his rifles today.

Brass Mounted - Golden Age Rifle – built in 1969

By 1975 however, his work had already evolved through a phase of building rather plain iron mounted, Appalachian mountain rifles and leaned more toward elaborate, late flint-lock period firearms, specifically, the type found in Southwestern Virginia or East Tennessee. By this time in his career, it becomes obvious that his personal creative “signature" would be hand forged iron mounts on most every rifle he made.

Southwest Virginia style – late flint period rifle

East Tennessee style rifle

By 1980, his guns started becoming considerably wider at the butt and took on the style of earlier, pre-revolutionary war period firearms. These are the guns he has probably become most noted for.

Pre-revolutionary style rifle – 2 inch butt

In 1979 Hershel was featured in "Foxfire 5" a documentary of the traditions of Appalachia. Researched and written by high-school students from Rabon Gap, Georgia; the on-going series of Foxfire books have been recording the customs and lifestyles of people from Southern Appalachia for over three decades. In 1984, Hershel was awarded a “National Endowments of the Arts ~ Folk Arts Apprenticeship Grant”. These grants provide funds for traditional craftsmen to take on worthy apprentices, thus passing on their unique trade. In Hershel’s words:

"I am usually pushed for time and deadlines which I almost never make. So without this financial assistance I would probably never have been able to share my experience. The grant gave me 300 hours for the project, which allowed time to explain what I was doing and to go into the smallest of details. A lot of these specifics I had never taken time to explain even to myself..."




John Bivins in his January 1988 N.M.L.R.A. "Muzzle Blast" article "The Grant Guns: Preserving Gunmaking Tradition”, makes this statement regarding H. House as an artisan: "… In his work, Hershel's attitude clearly follows that of the early gunmaker. Whether at the forge, filing vise or stocking bench he is fast, sure and efficient; he wastes no time fussing about. That is a blend of skill and experience that was very well defined by the adjective "workmanlike" which eighteenth-century patrons used to describe sound products of an artisan's hands." He continues by saying, "Original pieces have made a strong impact on Hershel’s personal style, but not to the point of duplication. In fact, Hershel's "translations" more often than not seem more successful than the originals."



Smoke House Gun Shop On April 1st. 1987, Hershel fell victim to a disastrous fire. He had worked for many years and produced countless rifles in a small one room shop that had once been a smoke house, but in the spring of 1984, Hershel and friends built a larger two room structure that would provide space for the soon to come N.E.A. funded apprentice. Much like Hershel's rifles it was born with good patina and just never seemed new. For anyone never in this shop, it would be impossible to realize the historical significance of what burned. Still to this day I can mentally see the complete set of his Grandfather's (and namesake, Hershel Finney) cabinetmakers planes, the volumes of well-worn books, and array of antique but commonly used tools. Hershel’s shop was literally filled with hand-made treasures from another day.



The larger two-room shop during construction, spring of 1984 – It just never was new… With the help and support of friends Hershel was soon back on his feet. He set up an almost identical work area in a side room off of his gristmill shed. Just this past year of 2006, he put the finishing touches on a new shop and adjoining log cabin close to the location of the one that burned.

New shop and log cabin - photo by Jan Riser

In the last several years, Hershel has been featured in "Field and Stream" magazine and on Sports Afield T.V. show. He has also become a much sought after presenter appearing at a multitude of workshops and conference's nationwide. He continues to produce several extremely unique but traditional long rifles and pistols each year, along with a multitude of one of a kind knives.


	The Grant Gun
Following are photos of what has become known as the “Grant Gun”, which was built under the auspices of the National Endowment of the Arts – Folk Art Apprenticeship Grant. This is a large pre-revolutionary styled rifle. The barrel was custom made by Don Getz and is 48 inches in length and .60 caliber. The extremely hard and exceptionally curly, quarter-sawn maple stock was from Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania and is stained and finished with “aqua-fortis” and linseed oil. It has a full 15 inches of pull and is 65 ¾ inches overall. The iron mounts are all hand forged by Hershel, and the lock started its life as a set of castings from Bud Siler. Hershel hammer forged - spreading out both the lockplate and cock, enlarging the overall design of the lock to an earlier, pre-revolutionary configuration.