...well, not much anyway -BUT read on you gearheads! Ya might learn
something!
original message; From: Want1937hd@aol.com Bob Swanson in Connecticut
To: boogiewoogie12@hotmail.com Doug Anderson in southern New York
Subject: Re: Gunsmithing
Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2001 00:49:49 EDT
" Doug, I didn't know the early Kentucky rifles (actually made in
Pennsylvania)were Damascus type barrells. "
ABSOLOUTELY BOB. BUT THE KEYWORD HERE IS "TYPE" BECAUSE TRUE "DAMASCUS
STEEL" IS BLENDED, FOLDED AND WRAPPED LIKE YOU WOULD A VANILLA/CHOCOLATE
CAKE MIX.
"KENTUCKY" RIFLE BARRELS GENERALLY WERE MADE IN A LONG STRIP OF WHAT
WAS CALLED "PIG IRON".... WHICH TURNED OUT TO BE A VERY CRUDE FORM OF
"HOMEMADE STEEL, BUT MUCH "SOFTER" WHICH IT TURNS OUT CANCELLED HARMONICS
THAT CAUSE INACCURACY (in "harder" metals...) AND THAT MY FRIEND IS ONE OF
THE "SECRETS" TO THE LEGENDARY ACCURACY OF "KENTUCKY RIFLES"!
(which were most often NOT made in Kentucky, but were carried there, and so
acquired the name!)
HOW DO YOU MAKE AN OLD TIME GUN BARREL ? -picture in your mind a long strip
of 1 1/2" x 1/2" thick very rough textured, very HOT piece of metal, held
with tongs on the colder end, by an apprentice while the master pounded on
it, forming it around perhaps a 3/8" COLD round bar for say, 30 seconds at a
time, before it was time to remove the COLD bar before you no longer could!
and to re-heat in a hellaciously HOT hickory fire, do this 100 or more times
and with a lot of luck, you now have what looks for all the world like, a
scrufty ass rusty ol' "water pipe". NOW its time to make a gun barrel out
of it! Perhaps 200 hours and more went into making these....no wonder then
that they were valuable, and a GOOD rifle worth a working mans YEARLY wages!
THAT, IN A SHORT PARAGRAPH EXPLAINS HOW GUN BARRELS WERE MADE IN THE TIME OF
OUR FOUNDING FATHERS....
OH, and BOB, there's only 1 L IN "BARRELS" :=) LOL!
" I've never really studied how they were made just thought they somehow
drilled bar stock."
WHERE WOULD ANYONE EVER GET BARSTOCK?
THE PROCESS TO MAKE IT HAD'NT BEEN INVENTED YET!!!!!
All the early machining fascinates me.
ME TOO BOB,...ANYTHING THAT MAKES NOISE, SPINS, WHIZZES, MOVES,OR
(especially!) GOES FAST!
Early guns and clocks are the bedrock of out high tech stuff we have
today. -Bob
ABSOLOUTELY BOB. YOU'RE RIGHT AGAIN!
GUNS WERE AMERICA'S FIRST FINE ART.
THEY WERE THE MOST VALUED POSSESION A MAN COULD HAVE. THEY FED HIS FAMILY,
OFFERED PROTECTION, AND WARDED OFF HIS ENEMIES. AS SUCH THEY GOT DECORATED
WAY BEYOND WHAT WAS NEEDED FOR FUNCTIONALITY. AND BECAUSE OF THAT ARE
FASCINATING! AND EXTEMELY BEAUTIFUL-I'M TALKING OF "THE GOLDEN AGE" GUNS
HERE: 1765 to 1825, A WONERFUL PERIOD OF CREATION.
WHEN I WAS A PROFESSIONAL 18th CENTURY GUNMAKER, (from 1980-1990) I STUDIED
THESE FELLOWS UNTIL I TURNED BLUE. BOTH BY EXAMINING ORIGINAL WITH MY HANDS
WHEN I COULD, AND IN MANY, MANY BOOKS ON THE SUBJECT. I USED TO MENTALLY
BRING MYSELF BACK TO THEIR WORKBENCH TO SEE HOW THEY DID IT, AND TRY IT THAT
WAY MYSELF. TO LEARN. I ONCE MADE A RIFLE ON AN ISLAND IN IN THE MIDDLE
OF SARANAC LAKE IN THE ADIRONDACKS JUST TO SEE IF I COULD. ALL WITH HAND
TOOLS, NO POWER ANYTHING-INCLUDING LIGHT. IT WAS ALL DONE IN THE DAYLIGHT
LIKE THEY WOULD HAVE HAD TO WORK..... AND YES, IT LOOKED PRETTY GOOD, AND
YES, IT SHOT!
SOMEDAY MAYBE I CAN SHOW YOU A COUPLE OF ORIGINAL GUN BARRELS THAT I NOW
CARETAKE UNTIL I PASS ON, ONE IS ON A PIECE PROBABLY MADE ORIGINALLY IN
WESTERN VIRGINIA,OR EASTERN TENNESSEE, CIRCA 1790 OR SO,THAT I RESTORED TO
SHOOTING CONDITION, ( you ought to see the first three shot target she
shot,....yah, I'm a proud papa" ) AND ANOTHER BARREL MADE BY A GENTLEMAN
WHO PASSED AWAY IN 1822, AFTER A LONG CAREER IN GUNMAKING IN LANCASTER
PENNNSYLVANIA, WHO WAS A PRIMARY CONTRACTOR TO THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS OF
THE UNITED STATES.
GUNMAKERS OF THE PERIOD CUSTONMARILY ENGRAVED THEIR NAMES ON THE TOP FLAT OF
THE BARREL IN THE SAME WAY THEY WROTE THEIR NAME (IF the could indeed,
spell...) THIS BARREL STILL BEARS THE NAME PROUDLY; J. DICKERT THAT
WOULD BE JACOB DICKERT.
A VERY FAMOUS GUNMAKER -WITH THE COMPARITIVE STATURE OF ED WINFIELD TO
HOT RODS.
HOPE YOU'VE LEARNED A BIT BOB, MAYBE OTHERS WILL AS WELL!
CHEERS, YER PAL, " Doug down South" -in exile, in south NuYawk
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