You could say it's in our blood. Our father, grandfather and great uncle were all gunsmiths. In the 1920s our grandfather Fred Will, Jr. owned a hardware store in Detroit, Michigan. He was a WWI veteran and an avid sportsman, shooting competitively at numerous gun clubs. Naturally, he sold and serviced a wide variety of firearms to hunters and shooters throughout SE Michigan.
In the late 1930s he sold the hardware store and moved his family to Northeast Michigan. Retirement didn't last long, as Fred and his brother Harold saw a need for sales and gunsmithing services in the area. He opened Will's Gun Shop in 1942 and like many of that era, began focusing on sporterizing surplus rifles and building custom firearms.
Fred's youngest son, Calvin, grew up in the gun shop and was also taught the gunsmithing trade. After graduating from the University of Michigan in 1958, Cal began expanding Will's Gun Shop. He grew the retail store into one of the largest in Northeast Michigan. Throughout the years he was a warranty station for Ithaca, Remington, Weatherby, etc., and even manufactured a line of colored Lucite gun sights called the Will-Glo Sight. Dad owned and operated Will's Gun Shop until his untimely death in 1991, but his legacy lives on through Will Brothers Restoration.