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- May 6, 2014
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Rich,
After re-reading Cleator from the link Spence provided, he mentions using a lead lap with emery powder paste for fine polishing of the bore. Such a lap could have smoothed up rough/rusted barrel lands in a rifle without having to precisely cut the lands to maintain a uniform land/bore size, as I mentioned earlier.
Twisted One in 66 - Dan,
IMO, it is extremely important in the history of guns in the American Colonies that a Boring Mill was set up as early as 1719/20 in PA and ran until the owner's death in 1728. What this tells us that there were enough gunsmiths making guns here, to make it cost effective for a service that provided gun barrels to other gunsmiths - just as most gunsmiths were already using foreign made locks (as was true until the AWI). Though we don't have figures on how many of those barrels were meant for smoothbores vs rifles, it seems information from the family records are that some were for rifles. When that boring mill was closed due to the death of the owner, other boring mills soon replaced it, because there was still a demand for rough gun barrels by other gunsmiths.
We have further documentation that long rifle barrels were being imported into Philadelphia from Germany in the early 1740's by Caspar Wistar (for one) and for sale to customers to have more rifles built, though we don't have the names of the people/gunsmiths who purchased them.
To me, this is the really frustrating thing that we don't have much information on the gunsmiths from 1730 to 1750 who were building rifles here (and their rifles) and taught the men who would later become the Masters who are well recognized today.
Gus
After re-reading Cleator from the link Spence provided, he mentions using a lead lap with emery powder paste for fine polishing of the bore. Such a lap could have smoothed up rough/rusted barrel lands in a rifle without having to precisely cut the lands to maintain a uniform land/bore size, as I mentioned earlier.
Twisted One in 66 - Dan,
IMO, it is extremely important in the history of guns in the American Colonies that a Boring Mill was set up as early as 1719/20 in PA and ran until the owner's death in 1728. What this tells us that there were enough gunsmiths making guns here, to make it cost effective for a service that provided gun barrels to other gunsmiths - just as most gunsmiths were already using foreign made locks (as was true until the AWI). Though we don't have figures on how many of those barrels were meant for smoothbores vs rifles, it seems information from the family records are that some were for rifles. When that boring mill was closed due to the death of the owner, other boring mills soon replaced it, because there was still a demand for rough gun barrels by other gunsmiths.
We have further documentation that long rifle barrels were being imported into Philadelphia from Germany in the early 1740's by Caspar Wistar (for one) and for sale to customers to have more rifles built, though we don't have the names of the people/gunsmiths who purchased them.
To me, this is the really frustrating thing that we don't have much information on the gunsmiths from 1730 to 1750 who were building rifles here (and their rifles) and taught the men who would later become the Masters who are well recognized today.
Gus
