About the appraiser
Butch Schoeller
Appraiser and Proprietor · Antique Arms Parts
Coins have PCGS. Stamps have expert committees. Antique gun parts have nobody — no grading service, no certificate, no third party you can appeal to when a dealer tells you a lock is a Model 1816 and it is not.
That gap is the reason this site exists, and it is why one person’s name is on it.
What that means in practice
Four things you can check for yourself
Not claims about experience — descriptions of what is visibly happening on this site, which you can go and look at.
He answers the questions
Every identification question put through Ask Butch is answered by him, not by a search engine and not by staff. The answers are published in full, with the question, so you can read what he has already said before you ask anything.
He photographs the parts himself
Every photograph is of the part you receive, and the metal is never edited. New listings follow a stricter standard — several angles, window light, no flash, and the worst flaw always shown, because not photographing damage only moves the discovery to after the sale.
He signs off the reference material
The encyclopedia carries a verification mark on every entry. “Expert verified” means he has personally checked it. “Sourced” means it is cited but he has not. Most of it currently says sourced, and it will go on saying so until he gets to it. A site that marked everything verified on day one would be telling you nothing.
He says when he is not sure
Where an attribution rests on judgement rather than a mark, the listing says so in those words. On arms with no serial number that is often the honest position, and a dealer who is never uncertain is a dealer who is sometimes wrong without telling you.
The catalogue
Made and found, one at a time
Most of what is listed here is made: investment castings copied from original parts, or parts Butch machines himself in his own machine shop — because the original does not exist any more and somebody needs one. Some of it is original period stock that surfaced in a lot, a collection, or a workshop clear-out.
That is why the site has a wanted board rather than a back-order button. Telling him what you are looking for is not a formality — it is the list he works from.
It is also why sold items keep their pages here instead of disappearing. A sold Model 1816 frizzen still answers the question “what does one look like, and what is one worth”, which is why most people searched in the first place.
The reference is free
The encyclopedia, the identification guides, the diagrams and the answered questions are not behind a payment and never will be. They are the reason to come here; the shop is what happens once you have worked out what you are holding.
Identification guidesNow other dealers too
Why the marketplace is vetted one dealer at a time
Independent dealers can now list here, which raises an obvious question: if the credential is one man’s judgement, what happens when the seller is somebody else?
Three answers, all of them structural rather than promises. Every listing names its seller, and you can see their record before you buy. New dealers are read before they go live — a person looks at each listing until a dealer has established a record. The refund commitment is the platform’s, not the dealer’s: if a part is not as described, you get all your money back including postage both ways, whoever sold it.
And one thing that will not change: a dealer’s stock never leaves their hands. Nothing is shipped here for inspection, before or after a sale. Vetting is done on photographs and paperwork.
Ask him something
The offer is genuine
If you are holding something you cannot name, describe it. You do not have to buy anything, there is nothing to sign up for, and the answer gets published with credit to you for asking. That is not a marketing funnel — the questions people ask are the best guide anyone has to what the reference material is still missing.