The Rifle, by Gary Paulsen
Gunsmith Cornish McManus lovingly crafts a once-in-a lifetime flintlock muzzle-loader, but is sadly forced to part with it when Clare, the love of his life, wants to begin a family. John Byam, a mountain man, must have the rifle. "Sweet," Byam says, nodding. "Like honey from a tree after a long, dead winter. I'll buy it." With his deal, Byam gets swept up in the Revolutionary War, where death results from use of the rifle. After the Revolution, the rifle falls into the hands of Sarah, who tucks it away between the timbers in her attic, where it stays until 1993. The rifle, discovered by two children, exchanges hands many times until its fatal act on Christmas Eve, when the spark of a Christmas candle uncannily ignites, setting off the charge that kills.
I think that Gary Paulsen depicted the art of gunsmith very well in this book. In the days of the Revolution, people admired you if you had an extremely accurate rifle. He expressed how the people at the time felt about the “sweet” rifle. Also, Gary Paulsen describes the reaction of the children, when they find the rifle very well.