Büchsenmacher

10:54 Dec 8, 2016 

Tried your link, but it yielded a blank wiki page....

09:24 Dec 8, 2016 

...MISSCREANT! such fun!

08:47 Dec 8, 2016 

there are several options. But if the nephews believe him to be a gunsmith, they have a rather masculine image of their uncle.
gallivanter/galvanist
missologist (myth) Missogynist (! just kidding)
misstery writer...oh dear!

14:56 Dec 5, 2016 

May work as a misnomer. It doesn't really have to be a profession, but how the people/friends saw him.

14:51 Dec 5, 2016 

http://www.salzburg.com/wiki/index.php/Büchsenmacher_(Brauch...
However, the significations mentioned here have little or no relevance to its use in the book.

14:51 Dec 5, 2016 

you've provided enough, I hope. Thanks! Pondering..

14:47 Dec 5, 2016 

...between giving context and revealing what I'm not allowed to. Basically, an older uncle tells his younger nephews that they have been labouring under a misconception for half their lives: he is not a gunsmith (Büchsenmacher) as they have always believed, but has been given the nickname "Büchsenmacher" because he has five daughters and no sons. He is, in fact, a successful trader/merchant in Russia, having emigrated from Germany many years earlier.

The story is set in the mid-19th century. The actual wordplay involved is not much more than a one-liner, but brings the uncle and his nephews closer together because it is the catalyst for him to tell him more about his real life and to disabuse them of their mistaken belief that he is or was a gunsmith. So it would be nice to keep the connection to a profession because otherwise I will need to find a new mechanism to get him to open up about himself and still, somehow, remain faithful to the original text.

14:31 Dec 5, 2016 

CONTEXT? That obscure, albeit vital, companion.

14:26 Dec 5, 2016 

The link to gunsmith exists purely in the misunderstanding, and doesn't go any deeper, apparently (that might come, but it doesn't look it: this is from a novel I'm translating, and I'm only reading a few pages or a chapter ahead).

14:16 Dec 5, 2016 

to any profession or to the gunsmith profession?

14:13 Dec 5, 2016 

...ideally, the name should have some sort of connection to a profession to keep the original wordplay, but I'm open to all suggestions, so "petticoat papa" is a good start!