An exceptional Kentucky rifle signed “L. Harmon” was recently discovered in Canada and brought back to the United States. It has many details of a Lexington School rifle, but the large, heavily pierced patchbox places it in the newly identified Clark County School. It is only the second signed rifle known from the Clark County School and has played a major role in describing and defining that school’s rifles.

The first Tansel powder horns were carved by Francis Tansel in Scott County, Kentucky, about 1800. The horns are distinctive for their simpler carved figures, shallower fish-mouth detail between the horn body and spout, and butt plugs covered with horn rings and plates. This article introduces the two earliest known Tansel powder horns.

The finest rifles made in Kentucky came from its golden age roughly 1800 to 1830. Kentucky’s Ohio River School of gunmaking produced the W. & R. Bell rifle of Bracken County, an outstanding rifle made by brothers William and Richard Bell.

America’s finest folk art powder horns were made by the Tansel family of Scott County, Kentucky, from about 1800 until 1829. This is an overview of the Tansel family powder horn tradition.

An introduction to Kentucky’s earliest known muzzle loading gunmaking schools, including an overview of the Lexington, Bardstown and Louisville schools.