I am very fortunate to have spent the afternoon with George Purtill and Mike a few weeks ago. We picked the worst possible day to go for a roadtrip, but as poorly as he felt, Mike took us down to the workshop, and he spent a bit of time giving me pointers on French edging.
When he owned and ran a deli, Mike was doing this work part time, and was encouraged by Gary Herman, back in the old Ridgefield days, to take up case work full time. He scratch built a case for me to fit a Long barreled Belgian 32ga. birding pistol. I had only met him casually in the past, but George had developed a good friendship with him over the past year, and I felt both honored, and sad to have spent the afternoon with him, knowing his time was short. Sadly, we're all moving in that direction, so sharing what knowledge we've accumulated,as Mike did with me, will hopefully make a tiny bit of us live on.
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