February 6, 1991 The Pittsburgh Press Mr.Flaig
moved to Ross about 1940. After Flaig's death in 1978, Mellon Bank
administered the gun business. "He never set up any provisions for
somebody to run it," said Forsythe. Former Aspinwall resident John
Levendos, an exporter of commercial shooting supplies, bought Flaig's
about two years ago. Levendos always knew about the place, but stayed
away. "It was intimidating. I didn't want to go up the driveway. It has
Transylvania overtones. Dense stands of tall evergreens still line
the narrow road , that climbs, twists and leads to Flaig's, a maze of
small buildings on 13 steep acres. Customers do business in the lodge,
an 18th-century log house, moved to the site in 1927. A knob shaped like
a rabbit "hanging by its back paws opens the lodge's front door. Resale
rifles and shotguns hang from the ceiling beams. Antlers from European
stags and roe deer decorate the .walls. Shooting supplies fill the cases
and shelves. Oblivious to the business at hand, deer and squirrels
freely roam the property, safe from the test firings performed on every
gun,-new or repaired. "They're safe. We're not that bloodthirsty," said
Forsythe. Test shots go into a sand-filled concrete chamber built into
ground behind the gun shop where Forsythe works. Although he specializes
in 'gun work, Forsythe also carves animals and birds in his spare
time. Mr.Nelson was always good; with wood," said former Flaig's
manager Bill Knabel of Ross. "He'll duplicate anything by hand. He does a
lot .of statue carving. One of his hawks is sitting right here in my
kitchen."- Forsythe and his wife, Doris, both shooters, spend most
weekends at their farm in Lockport, Mifflin County. They have one
daughter, Nicola Hood of Richland. ".: The couple, married almost' 40
years, met as youths. "A date was going out groundhog hunting," said
Mrs. Forsythe, who has three guns made by her husband. She often hears
about his projects at home. "He's always very proud of the guns he has
made. He'll come home and say, 'I made a gun for. this person today.'
"He likes to see the finished product, the beautiful wood," she
continued. "That's what gives the gun-its beauty Lovers of fine firearms appreciate Nelson Forsythe, a
quiet craftsman of uncommon artistry. Forsythe chisels and melds the
choice woods and blackened steel that become one in guns made at Flaig's, a one of a
kind of shooter's emporium on a hillside in Ross. ' Flaig's reputation
for "Serving sportsmen Around the Globe" largely rests with Forsythe, "one
of the best stock makers in the country," said shop manager George
Lnoll Jr. "He has made guns for kings, and he has made guns for gasoline
station attendants," said Jae Levendos, wife of Flaig's owner, John
Levendos. one of Forsythe's latest projects include matching hunting rifles
for a Saudi Arabian prince and princess. The prince's rifle, a Remington powerful enough to
hunt elephants, will feature a barrel modified to educe recoil. Hand
carvings will embellish the stocks of both guns, priced about
$5,300 for the pair. "It's just another job," said Forsythe, who makes the custom riffles and shotguns each year for hunters and target
shooters. He specializes in gun stocks, usually made from assorted
walnuts. He also repairs and alters guns for customers across the United
States. You always run into something you haven't seen before." More
than 100 chisels, rasps and chapers hang above the narrow workbench
where Forsythe works, overlooking traffic on Thompson run Road. He
talked last week while repairing a loaded shell from one gun's ammed
action. "I'm a chiseler," said the 61-year-)ld Butler County resident,
one of five gunsmiths among Flaig's eight employees. Each custom-made gun
begins as a piece of wood that is cut by machine according to one of
more than 100 patterns available to suit any shooter's physical build.
While other gunsmiths blacken, cut and assemble the receiver, barrel and
trigger, Forsythe fits the wood parts of each gun to its metal components. The exacting work of Gunsmith Nelson
Forsythe carves out the stock to Donald J. Stetz of The Pittsburgh Press a
rifle by tracing over a template 1953, remembers Forsythe the student "His work stood out." Other fans include Howard Wells of Peters, a
gun manufacturer's representative and former professional shooter for
the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. "He has built several guns for me. He
has done an incredible job. He's a tremendous craftsman. The guns I
have, that Nelson has built, have worked as smooth as butter." had to
hold it up on a fence for me." Forsythe came to Flaig's in 1957 after
training at the Pennsylvania Gunsmith School in Avalon. "They needed
somebody and I needed a job." He started as a barrel fitter before he
found his niche in woodworking. "I was always more interested in wood
than I was in metals." George Thacker, director of the Pennsylvania
Gunsmith School since Fellow gunsmith George Bole of Middlesex, a
competitor, also praised Forsythe's skill: "He is as good as they come."
But Forsythe remains humble about his work. "Really, that's the only
thing I've ever done. I can't do much else. A lot of people came and
went I just kind of hung in there." The late Edwin Flaig, a World War I
veteran, established his gun business in 1934 on the North Side which requires accuracy within a few thousandths of an inch, "to make
it look like the metals are growing out of the wood," said Forsythe, who
lives , in Jefferson. A railroader's son and a veteran of the Korean
conflict, Forsythe grew up in a family of Mifflin County hunters. "Guns
were always an interest to me," be said, recalling his first shot from
an old Winchester. "
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