THE PURPOSE OF THIS SITE
WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE DO
My name is Joseph Reichert, and this website is the front door of my enterprise, Joseph Reichert, Inc.
I have established this website to support those craftsmen who are dedicated to the design, making and testing of guns and ammunition. To accomplish this task, I collaborate with knowledgeable consultants in machine tool technology, chemistry, materials sciences and other fields; we seek out sources of information which provide specific instruction on the subject of small arms fabrication, and experiment with promising techniques which assist in the manufacture of guns and related articles. The results of our investigations are published through this website, and are downloadable as free materials, or offered for sale.
I have the utmost respect for the trade of gunsmithing, and for those who practice it, but this site is not concerned with gunsmithing. Rather, it is focused on the activities of the gun designer and gunmaker. It is designed to distribute technology which supports the manufacture of firearms barrels, receivers, trigger mechanisms, cartridge cases, primers, propellants, projectiles, and all promising experimental efforts related to the improvement of those articles.
I have a decisive preference for support of manufacturing on a small, local scale. This means that the information we compile is designed to be useful to workers laboring in small shops. In pursuit of this objective, we strive to apply developing technologies to our subject: CAD/CAM, CNC machining, additive manufacturing, EDM, simplified casting techniques, and scaled down versions of traditional industrial operations.
Because this is an ambitious project, it must begin in a small way and grow incrementally. I invite you to check back from time to time, to stay informed of our expanding offerings.
WHAT YOU WILL FIND HERE: A MAP
The contents of this website are organized by pages, in an effort to make information of interest easier to find. The following outline explains the contents of each page, with clickable links connecting the reader to the page described.
SAFETY – This section contains the most important information offered, and you must read it and absorb it before handling guns, ammunition, or the tools required to produce them. If you do not pay attention to safety, you may well find yourself unable to pay attention to anything else.
NOTICES – This area is reserved for notifications concerning the use of the website, including our policies concerning postings to the blog we maintain, publication of articles and essays prepared by our readers, legal notices regarding the lawful use of the technologies we reveal; and other information which will make this site more useful.
POSTS – This page has been created to contain a series of posts to which readers may reply and contribute, in other words, a “blog”. The posts are informal articles on gun and ammunition related topics, largely unsupported by citations to experiments or hard data, and are intended to prompt creative thinking and disclose promising avenues for experimentation. If you have anything of a speculative nature to share, this is the place to send it.
FREE RESOURCES – This portion of the site contains resources drawn from the public domain, or which are used with the permission of the copyright owners, and which can therefore be offered free of charge. Here, you will find articles, books, videos, and drawings, as well as links to such materials, which our readers may reference free of cost. Several other types of information are offered, including a bibliography covering the design, making and testing of guns and ammunition; a glossary of terms related to those subjects; and a series of essays categorized as “research articles”, which are formal presentations of specific topics in firearms technology. These research articles are papers supported by citations, and which follow a format which is described in the NOTICES section.
FOR SALE – These are articles, books, videos and drawings which are offered for sale. Some of these have been authored by third parties and are sold pursuant to arrangements made with them, and others are the work of Joseph Reichert and consultants affiliated with Joseph Reichert, Ltd. They have been selected because they provide direct, immediately useful technical instruction on the fabrication of firearms and ammunition. The processes they disclose are adaptable by the users to serve their own circumstances. Please note that this section contains a statement concerning our sales policies, and an order form to use for mail order purchases.
PRIVACY POLICY – Privacy issues have been placed on their own dedicated page, because a dedicated and conspicuous privacy policy is required by law in many jurisdictions. Please read this page carefully, and then determine the extent to which you wish to interact with this website.
CONTACT – This page informs our readers and customers about how to contact us, through email and also hard copy post mail. This page will instruct you how to make inquiries concerning materials you have ordered from us, and also how to initiate correspondence on all other topics.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
My name is Joseph Reichert, and I am the incorporator of Joseph Reichert, Inc.
I have always had an active interest in firearms, metallurgy, machine tool technology and energetic materials. In 2002, after practicing law for more than twenty years, I applied for employment at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. I completed a four year educational program through Los Alamos, resulting in my certification as a journeyman prototype machinist. I worked at Los Alamos for six years after completion of my training, manufacturing prototype assemblies and inspecting components produced by others.
I am grateful for the training Los Alamos provided to me, but the greatest benefit to me was not the instruction I received in specific skills, but learning to research and find useful answers to my questions about manufacturing processes. Learning to find answers to relevant questions is the single most important skill in any field of endeavor.