George

George was fascinated with explosions, pressure, and ballistics from the time he was a kid. At the age of ten, perhaps motivated by the fledgling American space program, he and his boyhood friends Carl and Richard came up with the idea to send some of the farm kittens up to the moon. Using the tools they had on hand – an old milk can, some type of fuse that got fire into the milk can, maybe a cup of gasoline in the bottom, just enough to make an explosion. They tapped the lid on real tight with their space kitten sitting on top with a harness and a parachute. They lit the fuse and ran for cover. POW!!! Liftoff! The milkcan lid exploded into the sky in a high arc and then came back to earth. Following it under canopy was the airborne kitten. Many Schaffer kittens earned their wings during these missions.

George never let truth get in the way of a good story.

There was a time that Joey’s house was going to get flooded on the ten mile creek – during the spring breakup. The ice had formed a big dam below his house and the Ten Mile was rising alarmingly fast. It was getting close to flooding his house. Joey called the DNR who said they couldn’t do anything about it but they would send somebody to take a look. Joey then called George to say “my house is going to be flooded in less than an hour!” and George said “no problem give me 20 minutes”. George built a pipe bomb in 10 minutes and drove over.

George gets to Joey’s, then heads out into the dark night, across the slushy, flooded forest floor. He returned to Joey’s “that’ll do it” and about 20 minutes before the floodwaters were going to hit the house they heard a massive “KABOOOOOOOM”, the night lit up, and the water subsided. Uncle George left, and about 10 minutes later the DNR showed up. Joey told them, “It’s broken up, the ice must have melted or something! All good now”.

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George passed away in December 2024.

Some of the highlights of George’s work included Scrimshaw drawings on his custom knives, beautiful pencil sketches, he created unique rings out of stainless-steel nuts, and he recently crafted wedding rings out of silver coins, and so many more fascinating unique items too numerous to mention.

George was featured on the show “Discovering” now called “906 Outdoors” multiple times over the years. Here are some of the shows, saved on youtube.

He loved guns and did gunsmithing. He loved practicing shooting his rifles at his private shooting range. As a result, he was an excellent marksman. He was an avid Buck (deer) hunter, he would not shoot a doe. His office is decorated with many trophy mounts. Another hobby was building workable cannons. He used these cannons to kick off events at different celebrations.

At the beginning of the U.P. Steam and Gas Engine Show in the late 70’s he became the iconic blacksmith in the Antique Village at the annual show in Escanaba. He served every year including this year. His daughter Becky (Rebecca Tebear) began going with him as a child, and has early memories of turning the crank on the forge for him and telling her father “Let’s go make the iron hot!” As time passed the village expanded to many different shows, including the U P State Fair, Labor Day, Logging Congress, Christmas in the Village and others. He was always there, if he could not make it, his daughter Becky would take over. He loved to demonstrate his skills at the blacksmith shop. He trained his daughter Becky the skills many years ago and she has her own blacksmithing business. She is very talented and will continue his legacy and earn hers as well.

He loved to share his blacksmithing knowledge to anyone who was seriously interested. He also provided private classes for those who wanted to be a blacksmith or to enhance their skills. To say the least he was a true carrying artist.    

George was a US Army Vietnam Era Veteran, served in the American Legion, and was involved with the Gun and Knife Show. Another hobby of George’s was his involvement in the family Maple syrup operation.