Hi John, Nice photos ;-),
I've been staring at at my unfinished John Dubiel article for about a year now trying to sort out where and from whom he learned stock making. He came to Hoffmans as a barrel grinder from Colt with his friend Eric Johnson. Rodgers was self taught and had made stocks before he went to Hoffmans. John Dubiel's late son Joe claimed his dad learned gunsmith in Europe, his daughter says no. I believe that John's background was in music and MAY have trained as a violin maker, again I don't have enough to publish that.
When it's all said and done both John Dubiel and Harvey Rodgers were at the top of their game. My guess is that Dubiel learned from Rodgers or they both learned from Wright. The only thing I feel confident about is they did not learn stock making from Hoffman.
