As an avid firearms enthusiast, William Parker puts it simply when he says “I like to give credit where credit is due,” and that’s what happened when he discovered Workman’s Friend barrier skin cream. Parker wrote to tell us how much he enjoys using our cream when working in his gun shop.
This Louisiana native may have only four years of professional gunsmith experience but has a lifelong fascination and appreciation for guns. “Growing up around firearms I loved to take them apart and clean them.”
Parker’s love of guns was cemented when he was passed down a .22 caliber rifle that wasn’t working, “I began taking it apart piece by piece until I found a broken spring.” Parker began searching for a replacement part and based on a suggestion from a friend’s dad, even checked out local auto parts stores. He finally found the right part, reassembled the gun, and tested it. That was 26 year ago. “Since then, I have been fixing my family’s broken firearms.”
But all that fixing can wreak havoc on a gunsmith’s hands. From touch-up paints and solvents to a vast array of other chemical products, all of this was drying Parker’s hands, not to mention it was incredibly hard to remove when done. Constant scrubbing with a nail brush left Parker’s hands dry and cracked.
It wasn’t until a friend of Parker’s sent him a bottle of Workman’s Friend barrier skin cream that working on firearms became less painful – for his hands. “It (Workman’s Friend) has made it a lot easier to clean my hands when I’m done. They don’t get dried out from the solvents I use either.”
He has also found a few surprising alternate uses for our cream. Parker, his wife, and five children used it when painting their home after it suffered damage during Hurricane Harvey in 2018. “They really liked that they didn’t have to go to work or school with paint stuck on their hands.”
When Parker’s not working his full-time job at an oil refinery, he can be found maintaining, repairing, and rebuilding a variety of different firearms in his gun shop located within his home. “When I get home from my day job, I head out to the (gun) shop to work on my customers’ firearms and that’s where I use Workman’s Friend and will continue to do so."
Apart from his love of guns, Parker also enjoys camping, kayaking, and mountain biking in and around is home in Vidor, Texas. But he’s never too long without practicing his favorite hobby – guns. Ever since he successfully repaired his first gun, he realized his true love was being gunsmith. “That was 26 years ago and that little gun is still shooting.” William Parker, we think you deserve a little credit too!