How did they make barrels

"The Gunsmith Of Williamsburg" should be required watching for anyone who builds anything pertaining to guns :)
 
Back in Finntown Minn'desoda where I growed up we had a blacksmith. A real one. He was rumored to have "made some muzzleloading rifles"

So I asked him.

And he said "yes."

And I asked him "how did you make the barrels?"

And he said "From hammered flatstock forge-welded around a mandrel"

And I nodded and bobbed and thought "that's the dumbest thing I've hear'd this day"

I was WRONG.....

Andy was a friggin' backyard GENIUS.

And I'm a WHOLE LOT DUMBER NOW than I was back then......
 
David Halblom said:
welding iron strips around a mandrel. Classic Damascus
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Adequate at black powder pressures.

Spiraling the strip around the mandrel was common, then 'hammer welding' after heating.

The advent of smokeless powder and the resulting higher pressures put an end to the older methods.

Drill, ream, rifle (mostly cut initially but later button rifled).
With a decent uniform steel composition the strength is adequate.

If you really need stronger you go to heat shrinking outer layers to compression load the inner layers.
This is why large guns have those 'step' on the outside.

The pressure can now exceed the Young's limit of the inner layer.
The pre-load takes care of it.
 
Or, a thin metal liner was wrapped in leather strips. Apparently, rate of fire was a real problem with guns built in this manner....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leather_cannon

Actually, the better 18th and 19th century cannon were made of cast bronze. Sometimes the "bore" started as a mandrel of sand or other mold material in the middle of the casting (we hope!), meaning less material to remove during the finishing process. Cast iron guns were cheaper and easier to make, but suffered from the lack of elasticity in the iron. Parrott and Dahlghren cannon have a distinctive swell around the breech to add material where it was most needed - even so, even these cast iron barrels still burst from time to time.

Interesting discussion on making barrels for US Civil War muskets is at http://www.shilohrifle.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=20101 . Key points of the discussion are the use of good quality iron, and hammer forging. Quality of the iron reduces the inclusions or slag (both are garbage), while hammer forging allows the hot metal to weld. More importantly, hammer forging helps break down slag and inclusions into smaller particles, and reduces the voids in the metal.

Note that gunmaking made big strides in progress starting in the late 1800s, when cheap steel finally displaced cast iron as the material of choice for barrels. Smokeless powder had a major part in making this change happen. (More heat, higher peak pressures, over a longer time.)
 
If you can get to the fair , they build a barrel from scrap I-beams. Rifling is done on a antique wooden rifling machine, all done by hand using 2 people. PS , if you mention anything about using a primer you will be escorted off of the property real fast.


http://www.dixonmuzzleloading.com/
 
I don’t remember where it was whether it was in the Buffalo Bill museum in Cody, Wy or the museum at the arch in St. Louis. But, they had a setup that was used in the 1800’s or maybe earlier for rifling Barrels that had a spiral cut into a log. A rod with a small piece of file ran inside a barrel and as the cutter was pulled through the barrel it followed the spiral groove cut into the log. I’d say this was a predecessor to the cut rifle barrels of today.
 
M995 said:
If you can get to the fair , they build a barrel from scrap I-beams. Rifling is done on a antique wooden rifling machine, all done by hand using 2 people. PS , if you mention anything about using a primer you will be escorted off of the property real fast.


http://www.dixonmuzzleloading.com/
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I might just arbitrarily find myself driving through there at that time this year....... cuz WOW.... and me-an t'wife can still do 2900mi in one go no problem,in our sleep.....with one hand tied behind our back
 
alinwa said:
I have a copy on VHS from back when it came out, I see here https://www.amazon.com/Gunsmith-Wil...&sr=8-1&keywords=the+gunsmith+of+williamsburg it has been released on DVD but out of print. Glad to see it on internet but I never trust it'll stay up so I like to own a hardcopy of stuff..... I'll keep my eye out for the DVD cuz I like to hand em out as gifts. And keep one or two for me :)
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Al,
I also have a VHS of it given to me by the welding instructor who taught night classes at the local JC back in the 80's.
He was a former Marine and certified gun nut so we hit it off quite well. He taught me how to TIG and I took care of him on a few things,
so he let me come in and use the machines when there was no class. Probably couldn't get away with that these days.
Hell they probably don't even teach Machine Technology courses there any more.
I may have to dig it out and make some DVD's of it.
Sure brought back memories of how fascinating it was when I was getting started in machining,
and certainly spurred my ongoing interest in firearms related machine practices.
Over 35 years later there is still no place I'd rather be then standing in front of one of the machines, learning something I didn't know yesterday.
Greg
 
wfcustom said:
Al,
I also have a VHS of it given to me by the welding instructor who taught night classes at the local JC back in the 80's.
He was a former Marine and certified gun nut so we hit it off quite well. He taught me how to TIG and I took care of him on a few things,
so he let me come in and use the machines when there was no class. Probably couldn't get away with that these days.
Hell they probably don't even teach Machine Technology courses there any more.
I may have to dig it out and make some DVD's of it.
Sure brought back memories of how fascinating it was when I was getting started in machining,
and certainly spurred my ongoing interest in firearms related machine practices.
Over 35 years later there is still no place I'd rather be then standing in front of one of the machines, learning something I didn't know yesterday.
Greg
Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more

And I too have been blessed by folks who went over and above, "hit it off" as it were.

And paying it forward is also very rewarding. It's a Good Time To Be Alive :)
 
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