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Old barrels

Fishbonker

Fishbonker

Life Member
As some of you know I’m a budding hot metal beater. I’d use the term “Blacksmith” but I don’t even deserve to use that word when referring to myself and my metal beating abilities. Over the past few months I’ve been trying to read up on Damascus and pattern welded steel. My goal down the road is to be able to make pattern welded blanks to create matching knives and hatchets from. This is a very long term goal. I may have to learn how to beat steel with my left hand, but I’ll eventually get it done. I figure if I learned how to wipe left handed I should be able to learn to beat left handed. Beat hot metal you sicko. I’d love to find a trip hammer that I could afford but those things seem to be made outta gold.

Anyway, my question for this forum is about gun barrels. During my reading I’ve come across very few pics of Damascus/pattern welded gun barrels. There seemed to be two methods of making gun barrels before drilling out a solid blank of steel became feasible.

Gun barrels were either made by rolling or folding a flat piece of iron, and later steel, over a mandrel to form the cylinder. Then the barrel was welded by hammering on the seam. Another way was for the Damascus or pattern welded steel to be drawn out in long relatively narrow strips and then twisted over a mandrel then hammer welded. Some times a single strip would be used and twisted over and around the mandrel and some times up to three strips would be used side by side and twisted on the mandrel. It may help to think of a barber’s pole. All the strips would be then hammer welded.

If I remember my reading correctly, the rolling and twisting of gun barrels was pretty much replaced by drilling out solid blanks during the civil war. It was much cheaper and quicker to drill than to hammer weld a barrel. After the civil war there were a few companies still producing guns with Damascus barrels, particularly in England and France and many were exported here. Then in the very late 1800 or very early 1900s (1908 I believe) the US passed a tariff on imported guns and the importation of European guns dropped to about ¼ of what it had been. Then followed years of European labor strife that ended with the beginning of WWI and pretty much signaled the end of fine gun making in Europe on any large scale.

So my question is, do any of you have any examples of old guns with either welded seams or Damascus twisted steel barrels? Do you still shoot them? Could you post pics of the gun and perhaps a detail pic of the barrel to show the flat seam weld or the Damascus pattern?

Thanks.

The ‘Bonker
 
Bonker, the muzzleloader in these pics has a "Longitudinal" forge welded barrel. Made by forge welding a long flat iron bar around a steel mandrel lengthwise. These type of barrels were made primarily from 1500 to 1700. Although I'm sure those dates aren't exact. I had previously read that 1760 was the year the switch was made to Damascus or laminated barrels as they are sometimes called. Either term being correct. Laminated being a flat bar wrapped around a mandrel like a candy cane. The fancier guns used flat bars made of Damascus producing a fantastic looking barrel.
As you said, about the time of the Civil War, mass production dictated a better, faster way to manufacture barrels and drilling a large bar was the way to go.

There are several places on this barrel that the weld shows well, but this is the most visible.

old_one.jpg

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And yes, I shoot this gun quite a bit. It is a .51 Cal.

I've looked over my 1860's English shotgun pretty close but can't see any seams or welds.
 
Thanks Jay. For some reason I knew you would have an example. Any idea how they made the welds? Did they use a fuller the same length as the barrel or did they use a hand hammer and beat it all the way out? I suppose they could have used some sort of press too. I imagine they would scarf or taper the edges. I’d like to see a bore scope pic of the inside to see where the seam was on the inside in relationship to the seam on the out side.

Does the barrel of that gun have rifling?

Anybody have any insight on why gun makers changed from octagonal barrels to round?

Another “back in the day” question, what did they use to measure powder? I assume there was some sort of cup they would pour the powder in, but if they lost their measuring cup how were they consistent on the charge? Did the powder horn meter the charge some how? Or did they pour and hope? As I recall the first pre measured powder charges in paper came out just prior to the civil war.

Thanks.

The ‘Bonker
 
There's a great film called "The gunsmith of Williamsburg" that featured one man, building a flintlock longrifle from start to finish using all the old methods. It's an old film, 1969 I believe. Occasionally, copies are for sale on the Bay or Amazon, but damn, they are expensive. Last I looked around 80 bucks. Too much for a video for this guy. It will be on my Christmas list for next year though. It's been 25 or more years since I seen it but I remember it pretty well. At the time I was more interested in lock making than barrel, but seem to remember the rod was the a bit longer than the barrel. Then driven out when done. Don't quote me on that though. No press was used, just anvil and hammer.
My gun is rifled and I've looked down the bore when I had it unbreached years ago but don't remember being able to see the weld inside.
Switching from octagon to round was just a changing of the times as sportsmen were demanding lighter weight guns for hunting.
As for measuring your charge, they had measuring devises as we do today. And like today, if you lost it, you replaced it. In a desperate situation, as if you were about to lose your hair, you simply dumped and prayed. Quickly!!
 
Here you go Bonker..........................

Guns totally hand made

Here's a quote from the bottom of the home page................

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> For those customers requiring the absolute finest in authenticity; I offer completely hand made guns. These unique pieces feature skelp-welded, hand-forged, wrought iron barrels, hand forged locks, and all mountings are made by hand in the shop. Every bolt, screw, etc. is hand made. This what traditional gunsmithing is about. </div></div>

Anybody want to contact him for a price? /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
 
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