From Our Treasurer
Peggy Szoke

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all our new members and wish everyone a Happy New Year. 

The holidays are over and it is time to concentrate on the success of our shows which allows us to further the education of our youth in firearm safety. Our contributions every year for this purpose is where we put our extra dollars and maintain our non profit status. This has been a good year for the Club even though the competition is fierce. It has become as severe as the corporate big boys in the business world. It seems like some of our promoters find it necessary to book their shows on top of our existing dates. This in return guarantees that both shows will suffer and this year you will find this happening a lot. I would encourage the members to attend the Club shows when this happens so we will be able to survive.  Our Mesa show for April 9 & 10 has another show booked on the same date. Please try to attend and let the other promoters know that we would prefer no one book on top of another show especially when they are aware of the dates.  I would like to think that COOPERATION is the key to the success of the shows and also to the table renters. Unless we stop this kind of piranha business ethics some of us will not survive.

We are looking forward to our February show at the Pima Co. fairgrounds. Walt Puczkowskyj has done a great job advertising for this show. He has added television and radio to our usual advertising and we are looking for a great crowd. I know we don't take the time to thank these show directors but if you could see the work that Walt and Mark do in the background, I think you’d go up to them, shake their hand and tell them A JOB WELL DONE.

Remember I have financial statements at all of our shows and give a complete cash report at all meetings. Why not join us Saturday after the show and enjoy a wonderful meal prepared by LEANNE and get all the club news from the board members firsthand.

Peggy

Club News

Congratulations Vice-President Gene Gilbert!

?

Our first show of 2005 will be held at Pima County Fairgrounds February 5th & 6th. Call Walt for table reservations or information at 520 298-0422

We will hold a general membership meeting and catered dinner on Saturday Feb 5th. All members are invited to attend. 

?

The officers and members of the Arizona Arms Association welcome the following new members to the club!

Joseph Burgarella - Sun Lakes

Phillip Calloway - Tyrone, NM

Arnold P. Dieter - Tucson

Layne Hendricks - Tucson

Chris Isabel - Tucson

Robert S. Laurie - Tucson

Hugh A. May - St. Louis, MO

Richard G. Meed - Tucson

Harry Miller II -Sun City West

Albert A Roughton - Tucson

Steve Skroch - Phoenix

Rudy R. Warren - Apache Jct.

Norman Wightman - Tucson

?

The Secretary’s Desk

Cindy Hale                                        HaleWest@aol.com

Our December show turned out a good crowd. At our Fall election the membership elected Gene Gilbert as Vice -president.

Hotels in Tucson for this weekend’s show are pretty scarce. If you plan to join us and need accommodations, try Benson. Pima County Fairgrounds has hook-ups for motorhomes and campers too!

We are very saddened to report that our friend Rick Mack and his wife Barbara lost their 36 year old son Brian when the military vehicle in which he was riding was hit by an explosive device in Mosul, Iraq on January 13th.

Master Sgt. Brian A. Mack was part of a combat brigade sent to Mosul to reinforce troops attempting to secure the country for the Iraqi elections. Brian had a distinguished 16 year career in the Army.

Cindy

ADVICE FOR NEW COLLECTORS...
HOW TO GET STARTED

Good article by Man at Arms Magazine

Here at the offices of Man at Arms magazine, we often get asked by beginning collectors, "How can I get started?" Gun and sword collecting is a great hobby, but lots of folks just don't know where to begin. They don't want to make an expensive mistake with their first purchase, and they tend to be overwhelmed by the amazing variety of collectible weapons that are available.While no one has all the answers, we will try to set you off on the right course. We aren't making any guarantees, but perhaps you can sidestep a few obvious pitfalls.

•        Pick a specialty. Do this right away. Ask yourself what period of history you enjoy. Find out whether you like pistols, rifles or swords. If you are a World War II enthusiast, collect Garand's. If you are entranced by the Wild West, collect 19th-century revolvers. If you need a helping hand in deciding, then go out and buy Flayderman's Guide. Every American gun collector should own this book, which can be purchased or ordered from almost any book store. It has hundreds of pictures and descriptions of all the popular 18th and 19th-century guns and pistols. If you prefer 20th century weapons, then you might want a copy of the Blue Book of Gun Values by S.P. Fjestad. Take out every book about guns at your local library. Take a look around and narrow your interests to a single topic. Now you will probably change your mind about what to collect as you go along, but it is very useful to start with a specialty...even if you don't stick with it.

•              Start small. Don't rush out and spend a lot of money before you know what you are doing. We recommend purchasing one average example of the type of gun or sword that you have chosen to collect. Just one! Then buy as many books and magazine articles as you can and learn everything about the gun you own. Down the road you will probably find out that you bought the wrong gun for too much money - but buy that first example anyway. It will get your feet wet and help you understand what all the authors are talking about. You can't learn about guns and swords on a purely intellectual level; you have to hold them in your hands to appreciate them.

•        Attend gun shows and gun club meetings. Contact the office of Man at Arms by e-mail or the NRA Gun Collecting Department for information about shows and clubs in your area. Collectors love to talk about their interests, so don't be shy. Introduce yourself as a new collector and make some contacts. If you can get to a major gun show, all the better. The bigger shows usually have educational displays and you will want to study all of them. Talk to the collectors who own these displays; they spent a lot of money and traveled a great distance to educate you about their specialty, so take advantage of this exceptional opportunity and thank them for providing this valuable service.

•        Subscribe to all the magazines. Not just ours! A lot of collectors are big fans of Man at Arms, and don't think that they need to subscribe to any other magazines or club journals. This is a big mistake. These other publications all have good information in them and are worth getting. Remember: knowledge (in the form of books and magazines) is relatively cheap compared to the cost of making a mistake. Collectible guns and swords are expensive, and it is simply foolishness to make uninformed purchases.

•              Be kind to yourself. You are going to make some mistakes. Everyone does - even the experts. But if you get preoccupied with your mistakes, you will never enjoy this hobby. Weapons collecting can be a tremendous amount of fun. You will meet a lot of great people and find new ways to learn about history, technology and art. If you take your time, learn before you spend and follow high ethical standards in your dealings with others, you will be well on your way to success.

Visit their website at: http://www.manatarmsbooks.com/index.html

The Beinfield Las Vegas Antique Arms Show

Movie Quote:  "A gun is a tool, Marian. No better, no worse than any other tool. An axe, a shovel, or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that." Shane, played by Alan Ladd, in the movie Shane (1953).

.

Determine How Old That Knife Is!

By Bill Rudich

Working principle of a stationary metal analyzer

The principle of the analysis method of SPECTRO´s stationary metal analyzers is optical emission spectroscopy. Sample material is vaporized on the spark stand by an arc or spark discharge. The atoms and ions contained in the atomic vapor are excited into emission of radiation. The radiation emitted is passed to the spectrometer optics via an optical fiber, where it is dispersed into its spectral components. From the range of wavelengths emitted by each element, the most suitable line for the application is measured by means of a photomultiplier.

The radiation intensity, which is proportional to the concentration of the element in the sample, is recalculated internally from a stored set of calibration curves and can be shown directly as percent concentration.

Bill Rudich is a member of the Arizona Arms Association and the Editor of the Automatic Knife Association publication, AKA Switchblades.

Cowboy Humor

With dreams of rodeo glory dancing in his head, a young tenderfoot decided to hone his horsemanship. He mounted the horse, and it sprang into motion. It galloped along at a steady and rhythmic pace, but the tenderfoot began to slip from the saddle.

Terrified, he grabbed for the horse's mane, but couldn't seem to get a firm grip. He tried to throw his arms around the horse's neck and almost lost his balance. The horse galloped along, seemingly impervious to its slipping rider.

Finally, the tenderfoot tried to throw himself to safety by leaping from the horse. Unfortunately, his foot became entangled in the stirrup, putting him at the mercy of the pounding hooves. His head battered repeatedly against the ground, and he was moments away from unconsciousness when, to his great fortune, the Wall-Mart manager ran out and unplugged the horse.