What Tools Does a Gunsmith Use?

Whether you're a professional gunsmith or an aspiring amateur learning how to maintain and modify firearms of your own, a well‑equipped toolkit is essential. The right gunsmith tools make simple tasks more efficient and complex tasks more easily achievable.

This article explores various tools and firearms components that should be in easy reach as you work. But first, let's look at some of the everyday operations gunsmiths carry out on their guns or guns owned by their customers.

Professional gunsmiths modify, renovate, decorate, and repair firearms. They may also build firearms from off‑the‑shelf components or from custom components they have manufactured. Gunsmithing is a skilled trade; it demands expertise in various creative and technical disciplines, including metalwork, woodwork, gun repair and modification, etching, firearm assembly and disassembly, gun safety, and more.

Typically gunsmithing tasks include:

In addition to practical expertise, gunsmiths must also have a solid understanding of the laws pertaining to gun manufacture, gunsmithing, and gun ownership — both on a federal and local level. While we're discussing the legalities, it's worth mentioning that professional gunsmiths require a Type 01 Federal Firearms License (FFL), the dealer's license. In some circumstances, they may also need a Type 07 FFL, a gun manufacturer's license. We explored this topic in more depth in Gunsmiths vs. Gun Manufacturers: What's the Difference?

We will explore the essential toolkit that a professional gunsmith relies on to carry out repairs, modifications, and decorative work.

Gun manufacturers often use specialist screws you're unlikely to find outside of the firearms world. You'll need screwdrivers specifically designed for working with guns. Gunsmith screwdrivers are typically hollow ground; unlike standard slot screwdrivers, the bits do not taper but are instead concave in shape. Hollow‑ground bits allow the driver to fit more snugly in the slot, preventing slippage that can mar and scratch screws — something you definitely want to avoid when working on customers' firearms.

Gunsmith screwdrivers are available with either fixed blades or as kits with interchangeable magnetic tips that fit into a handle.

Gunsmiths tend to gather an ever‑increasing selection of files in a wide range of sizes and shapes. That's because they need files that are well‑adapted to metals of varying hardness as well as woods and plastics. Files play a vital role in cleaning, component shaping, breaking the edges of machined parts, and adapting firearms and components. For metalwork, you are likely to need several large files for rough work, a set of mill files in multiple shapes, and a set of needle files for fine work. To that, you can add wide‑toothed files suitable for working with woods and plastics.

Firearms manufacturers use a wide range of pins as firearms fasteners and components in the gun's trigger assembly and action. Pins are often used instead of screws to hold guns together.

Depending on the gun, you can expect to find:

To safely remove and install pins, you'll need a set of pin punches. Pin punches are available in two main varieties: solid pin punches and roll pin punches. Solid pin punches are used with dowel pins and other pins formed from a solid piece of metal.

Roll pins, which include spring pins, are hollow and have relatively thin walls; they can easily be damaged if you use a solid pin punch. Punches designed for roll pins feature a small extrusion on the end called a nipple. The nipple fits into the hollow to ensure the pin doesn't deform during fitting and removal.

When working with guns, you are likely to need solid pin punches and roll pin punches in various sizes and a set of punches for working with softer materials such as brass and plastic, which could be damaged if you attempt to work on them with steel punches.

Hammers are essential when working on guns. You'll need hammers to operate the pin punches we described in the previous section, as well as for tasks that require you to deliver large forces to small areas accurately. Gunsmiths typically rely on three hammers: a lightweight ball‑peen hammer, a brass hammer, and a plastic hammer.

When using a hammer, it's imperative to avoid damage to softer gun components made of low‑carbon steel, aluminum, brass, plastic, and wood. That's why brass and plastic hammers are vital components in the gunsmith's toolkit: they can be relied on not to scratch or otherwise damage softer materials. It's also why you'll often find gunsmiths using wooden mallets or rawhide mallets that can't mar metal surfaces.

Gunsmiths use several types of wrenches adapted to their needs. They are invaluable when assembling and disassembling guns, tightening and loosening lock nuts, and fitting parts such as scopes. Perhaps the most important is the armorer's wrench, which combines several standard wrench sizes in a single, convenient tool.

Many gunsmiths also make frequent use of torque wrenches. A torque wrench allows the gunsmith to apply precisely the right torque to screws and nuts. This is particularly important in gunsmithing because improper torque on fasteners in actions and other components can impact the firearm's reliability and accuracy.

We've already looked at screwdrivers and pin punches, and now we come to the third of the common firearms fasteners: hex bolts and screws. Many gun manufacturers use hex bolts, and gunsmiths will need a wide variety of hex keys — also known as Allen keys or Allen wrenches. In addition to standard U.S. hex keys, gunsmiths who work on non‑U.S. firearms may also need metric hex keys.

Calipers are a measuring device with a rule and a pair of jaws, one fixed and one with a moving pointer. Items are placed between the jaws so their dimensions can be read from the rule. There are several types for measuring inside and outside dimensions and Vernier calipers for added precision. Calipers are very useful for measuring gun part dimensions, bore diameters, and thread measurements.

Gunsmiths often encounter pieces that use fasteners with unconventional threads. Additionally, gun components may use custom threads with unusual depths and pitches. Using incorrectly threaded screws and parts can damage both components. Thread checkers and thread gauges help gunsmiths to select or manufacture components with the correct threads.

In addition to tools and parts, gunsmiths also need to hold firearms in place while they work on them. Work holding can be challenging when you're dealing with irregularly shaped guns, especially if they are made of soft metals and plastics that could be damged or scratched by a bench vice's jaws.

Bench blocks are cylindrical holders designed to keep firearms in place while accommodating protuberances such as sights. They usually include a variety of holes that match the position of pins on a firearm's body and in components such as the hammer and sear, allowing gunsmiths to easily remove pins without damaging the firearm or their bench.

Finally, all professional gunsmiths collect a diverse selection of firearms fasteners. Guns use many different types of fasteners, so it's convenient to have spares on hand. We've already looked at some of the fasteners used on firearms, including pins and screws.

Other commonly used firearms fasteners and related parts include:

Huyett stocks over 130,000 standards‑compliant firearms fasteners and parts in a wide variety of materials, finishes, and heat treatments. Our firearms fasteners are used throughout the gun manufacturing and gunsmith industries in firearms, ammunition, optics, and firearms accessories.

To learn more, visit our firearms fasteners page or contact our Sales team for sourcing guidance, engineering support, and information about custom manufacturing.