The End of the Quackenbush Era.   Published in Airgun Hobby, Volume 3, Number 2, April, 2006, page 3   Copyright by John Groenewold, February 4, 2006.   It is with sadness that I must report the end of an old friend and my favorite collecting area. 2005 brought the end of many things including the H. M. Quackenbush Company.   In the spring of 2005, H. M. Quackenbush, Inc., HMQ Metal Finishing Group, LLC., HMQ Chemtech, LLC., and HMQ National Plating, LLC. filed a petition with the Northern District, State of New York for Bankruptcy protection.  All these companies made up what we in the airgun collecting arena know as the H. M. Quackenbush Company.  After the filing, the company’s assets were purchased buy a competitor in the plating industry.    The Quackenbush family has a great sense of pride and belonging, as well as a keen interest in history, family history, and genealogy.  All historical items held by the former Quackenbush companies were turned over to the Quackenbush family and divided amongst numerous family members for safe keeping and preservation.  These items did not belong to the Quackenbush Company but rather to various family members and were only stored at the old company factory in Herkimer, NY.  This includes the family’s gun collection as well as all related documentation.  It is not known whether or not family-owned items stored or on display at other locations such as the Herkimer Historical Society, Herkimer County Community College, etcetera will be recalled by the family members.   Although Quackenbush had not made guns since before World War II, they still provided a service to the gun industry by plating such things as Remington bolts for many years.   The quality of the plating done by this landmark company was of the highest quality as can be noted by how long the plating has lasted on items produced by them when compared to other companies.  They also made nut picks and nut crackers untill 2005.    The name will be missed but not forgotten, as many people from all walks of life collect the things made by this company and invented by it’s founder, including airguns, boys guns, nut picks and nut crackers, stair rods, foot-powered tools, to name just a few.   John Groenewold is the author of “Quackenbush Guns” and much can be learned about these unique guns on his companies website www.jgairguns.biz.