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By Kevin Allen
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
A slogan engraved on Ken Gilpin’s antique Virginia long rifle reads, “Happy is he that escapes me.” Deer and other game in Rappahannock County may feel that way about him, but otherwise those words about the jovial Huntly resident could not be further from the truth.
The 74-year-old Gilpin is not the type of craftsman that advertises his talents or travels to art shows; he allows the quality of his work to speak for itself. His skills as a craftsman are as varied as his life experiences, which have taken him from the East Coast to Alaska and back. And he’s a pretty good storyteller, too.
Gilpin works on a wide variety of crafts, lb name a few, he carves walking canes, mounts fish trophies, makes model boats and fashions Aleut hunting helmets in the tradition of the Native American tribe in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. But his first love is antique long rifles, which he restores and decorates using bas-relief and incised carving.
“I’ve always tinkered with [crafts],” he said. “It keeps me busy.”
Gilpin bought his first long rifle when, he was 15 years old and estimates that he has made about 35 of the firearms since then. He says it usually takes him about six months from start to finish for one rifle. Gilpin also does work for local people who want their own long rifles restored.
“There are no other long rifles made anywhere,” Gilpin said. “They originated in Virginia and they stayed in Virginia.”
Gilpin says he aims for historical accuracy while decorating his long rifles, and bases his designs on historical reference books about the firearms.
When it comes to long rifles, there is a wide range of price and complexity, and Gilpin works with rifles at both ends of that scale.
At the less expensive end are bam rifles, which are undecorated and utilitarian and cost about $400.
“Most of the old farmers couldn’t afford much, so these were plain-jane simpletons,” Gilpin said.
Virginia long rifles, however, cost about $7,000 and are embellished with intricately carved designs, sometimes in gold and sterling silver.
“This one’s a rich man’s folly,” he said.
Gilpin’s personal rifle is an original production that he has restored and decorated.
“This is my rifle, this is unique to me,” he said.
Gilpin’s long rifles may be antiques, but he says they are still useful for hunting.
“These are simpler to maintain and just as powerful [as modem firearms], if not more so,” he said. Tve had people shoot these and say they shoot better than their modem-made rifle.”
Virginia long rifles date back to the period from 1750 to 1830 — what Gilpin calls the “golden age of rifles.”
He says that in frontier days, thrifty settlers developed the long rifle, which has a longer barrel and lower caliber than prior rifle models, to reduce the amount of powder they had to use and the weight they had to carry while exploring the Appalachian wilderness.
Gilpin was bom in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Bethesda, Md., but he is quick to emphasize that he lived there in the days before the Capital Beltway ran through town. In 1955, after serving as a medical aid in the military, Gilpin headed north to Alaska, where he worked in law enforcement for
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