Short starters/ball starters

[SgtErv]

Fred, I reckon that's a pretty sound theory as well. I have a Rice barrel on one rifle and another that's much shallower. The Rice barrel has some deep rifling, requiring the thicker patch, and is much more difficult to load than the other. The other is an Investarms Hawken (which I'm pretty sure is manufactured by Lyman.) Loading the Rice with a .010 patch is incredibly easy, but I can't hit a thing with it. Even with .015 the groups suffer

Sort of unrelated, Doddridge recalls that before a suspected attack, the militia captain ordered that the men make patches of thinner material so as to facilitate easier loading.

 

[George]

I am not certain, but I believe I got my copy of the book from Amazon.

Spence

 

[Artificer]

Thanks Spence,

Gus

 

[Capt. Jas.]

Thank you and Spence for that information on how to find the book in print. I really appreciate it. I would really like to compare it with the highly detailed and translated German text as found in one of the Journal of Armsmaking Technology Volumes.

BTW, I don't doubt the barrels were turned round by the Portuguese and Spanish in the period, as I have seen original examples.
Gus

Gus you will love the book. They in fact give three methods to working the outside of the barrels. Acton in 1789 mentions that some (English? ?) makers were attempting the lathe to round barrels as opposed to the long compass and file method. He mentions the spring you correctly pointed out. I think the "rest" mentioned in The Perfect Gun could very well be used for the tool to rest on but also for the barrel hike turning. Even with the turning method it appears the turned a little at the muzzle and then at the wedding ring area. Then they used rules or compass to file the rest down and then back to the lathe lightly for truing. This is off the top of my head as I don't have the book handy atm. Worth having for your collection of references.

 

[Tinker2]

You may find this interesting
http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~dispater/dispater.htm





William Alexander

 

[Artificer]

William,

Thank you VERY much!! That one is going in a file I keep of links to very early machinery and tools. The section on “The Perfect Gun” and “Ye Arte and Mysteries of Turning” were especially interesting.

Below is a period Tool Rest/Holder from that link, something on the order of what I referred to in my post above. Some kind of such a Tool would be essential on a lathe to turn the ends of a barrel flat and perpendicular to the bore. The Tool rest/Holder probably would not have had to have been quite this elaborate, of course, but something like it would have been required.

“This picture shows the sophisticated nature of compound tool holders in use during the mid 18th century for ornamental turning. This one is from the Encyclopedia of Diderot. A rare accessory between 1480 and 1650, it then became very popular.” http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~dispater/tools2.htm


Gus