I graduated from CST in September 2020, moving directly into a dream job thanks to the placement office
2020 Graduate
Kurt Martonik
Kurt Martonik
Stockmaker/Gunsmith C Sharps Arms
Born and raised in rural North Central Pennsylvania, I grew up around everything firearms. At six years old, shooting and hunting were daily activities for me. My grandfather and I always tinkered in his shop refinishing old beat-up guns. This stuck with me for the rest of my life.
Following high school, I enlisted in the United States Air Force, flying as a Boom Operator for close to seven years. Immediately after completing my enlistment obligations, I showed up at the Colorado School of Trades. While at school, I liked the stocks section, and they were willing to work with me to make sure I received as much stocks training as I wanted.
I graduated from CST in September 2020, moving directly into a dream job thanks to the placement office. I started a full-time stockmaking position at C. Sharp Arms, recreating Sharps, Remington, and Winchester single-shot rifles. Aside from stocking rifles 40 hrs a week, I also have started to do a lot of gunsmithing related writing. My website, kurtthegunsmith.com is meant to be a resource for gunsmiths and shooters alike.
The advice I’d like to give to the current and future CST students is to ask questions every day. Challenge your instructors and read every book you can get your hands on. You will gain a good knowledge base at the school, but it shouldn’t stop there. It is impossible to know everything within this field. Find what you enjoy most, focus on that, and become the best at it.
Without CST I would not be where I am at today, I use the skills that I learned in school every single day.
Alumni Feature
Titus
2019 Graduate
Before attending Colorado School of Trades, Titus worked within the automotive and food industries. Titus graduated from an automotive school and worked in this industry for about four years. He then pursued the service industry, Titus worked his way from dishwasher to kitchen manager, then eventually becoming FOH manager. But, all along he knew, firearms were his passion. Titus began researching everything he could to gain knowledge of firearms. His research stretched from hours to days leading him from reloading to full disassembly of his personal firearms. In December 2017 Titus decided to come into the Colorado School of Trades to tour the school of his dreams. Immediately after the tour he knew, this is the place. One month after his tour Titus had completed the enrollment process and was set to start school in March 2018.
“(For me) The best part of school was that I got to see a lot of guns. I was able to shoot and learn about a wide variety so that I was as prepared as possible.”
While attending Colorado School of Trades, Titus found that he excelled with the hands-on curriculum and enjoyed the variety of firearms covered within the course. “My favorite part of school was being able to work one-on-one with a lot of really skilled instructors and develop my skill set. Without CST I would not be where I am at today, I use the skills that I learned in school every single day. I also met a ton of people during my time at CST and now I have a lot of not only great contacts in the gun community but friends as well.”
Prior to graduating Titus accepted a full-time position at Wild West Guns in Las Vegas, NV. In early 2020 Titus started working at Rifle Dynamics, a company that specializes on the AK platform. Titus enjoys every aspect of custom firearms from building to painting to woodworking and anything else. “I had a great time at CST and I have loved every minute of my career outside of school. CST opened up a lot of amazing opportunities for me and it is a great school to go to.”
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