Читать книгу Gun Digest 2011 онлайн

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The artist doing all the hand work on the Krieghoff Luger is Frank Kaltenpoth. While the English gun trade has tended to keep their gunmakers at the bench and away from the fame they are due as individual artists, this attitude has actually worked against them, as today most people imagine “Best Quality” guns to be mostly machine-made. Nothing could be further from the truth, and that mistake is not to be repeated with the Krieghoff P08.

Frank Kaltenpoth was born on October 20, 1963, the son of a lockmaker. He started his apprenticeship as a gunsmith at Ferlach in 1980, graduating with honors in 1984. He then spent four years in military service as armorer in charge of all hand-held weapons and the main gun of the Leopard 1 tank in Panzer Battalion 134 of the German Army stationed in Wetzlar, Germany. He began working as a gunsmith at Kettner in Augsberg in October of 1988. After four years, he was eligible for the two-year master gunsmith course in Ulm, where he graduated with honors in June of 1993. He then worked for Kirstein, remodeling and custom-building M1911-A1 pistols. There he learned to use CNC machines to rough out a part to a point where he could hand-file and hand-fit a gun to Best Quality standards. Combining the latest machining techniques with traditional Best Quality handwork is a great skill and one that few men have. As befitting a great master, Kaltenpoth is technically self-employed but since 1999 has done work only for Krieghoff.