There were times when a gun wasn’t so much a symbol of anything as it was an everyday tool.

Those times will be celebrated at Campus Martius Museum on Saturday with a daylong exhibition, trade fair and craftmanship demonstration, Contemporary Gunsmithing & Allied Arts. The event will have around 40 exhibitors, said Bill Reynolds, the museum’s historian and exhibit specialist.

“It’s an exhibit of gunmakers in the traditional style, like firearms that would have been used on the frontier,” Reynolds said. “They were critical for gathering food and providing protection, an everyday tool for quite a number of people.”

The exhibitors, most of whom Reynolds said live within a two-hour drive of Marietta, will offer more than firearm history and technique.

“There will be leatherworkers who make some of the accouterments that go with guns, like bags for shot, powderhorns — it was essential that they seal up watertight — and other critically important things,” he said. “We’ll also have blacksmiths, knifemakers and tinsmiths.”

There will even be an artisan, Linda Pritchard, who makes decorative and useful items such as knife sheaths and straps festooned with porcupine quills, a technique called quillwork.

The exhibitors will have their works on display, and some of them will be for sale, Reynolds said. There also are dealers in antique tools for gunsmiths, blacksmiths and cabinet makers.

Those venerated trades shared many of the same tools, Reynolds said, from a time when handcrafting involved more labor and less technology. Reynolds said he’s been building frontier-era guns for 45 years, and he learned what he knows from Warren Offenberger.

Offenberger, 81, is the area’s don of traditional gunsmithing. He developed an interest in the craft about 50 years ago, he said, drawn by his love of history and the exacting craftsmanship. He studied the work of renowned gunsmiths of the Mid-Ohio Valley such as John Vincent, for whom the Washington County community is named, and A.B. Sherman.

“I was attracted to the work they did,” he said. “I tried my hand at it and was it was gratifying for me to work in the wood and metal.”

Offenberger said his work is now in collections from New England and throughout the Midwest. Each year he creates a presentation rifle to be auctioned by the Shriners.

“I’ve got a soft spot for the work they do,” he said. “I like to think the contribution will help some little kids along.”

His latest Shriner rifle will be on display Saturday.

The craft is a lot of handwork and doesn’t involve a big battery of specialized tools, he said.

“They’re made by hand, and it doesn’t take a whole lot of equipment,” he said. “You take a big hunk of curly maple and turn it into a gunstock, that’s a lot of work. You can put 300 or 350 hours into a nice presentation gun.”

The show opens at 9:30 a.m. Saturday and continues until 4 p.m. Admission is the normal cost of getting into the museum –$7 for adults, $4 for students and children 5 and under free — and it includes access to all museum exhibits.

If you go

¯ What: Contemporary Gunmakers & Allied Artists Show.

¯ When: 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

¯ Where: Campus Martius Museum, Second and Washington streets.

¯ Cost: Regular museum admission — $7 for adults, $4 for students, children 5 and under free.

¯ For information: mariettamuseums.org or 740-373-3750.