In my previous post on my new Spiller & Burr revolver I noticed that it did not have a forcing cone cut in the rear of the barrel. I decided to rent a forcing cone cutter from 4D Reamer Rentals in 9mm/.38 special/.357 mag. It came the other day late and the first thing I did was to examine it to make sure that there were no issues with the tool. The tool cutter was in perfect condition as were most of the other supporting pieces. One thing that I did notice was that the long threaded rod that screwed into the cutter head had some burrs along the shaft where the handle's set screw anchored it to the shaft. This was taken care of quickly with some 320 abrasive paper to knock down the burrs raised by the set screw being overly tightened. Once that issue was addressed, I assembled the tool to the gun. Using copious amounts of cutting fluid I proceeded to rotate the cutter clockwise looking from the muzzle towards the hammer VERY LIGHTLY for 7 complete rotations. I then removed the cutter, cleaned the bore and inspected my progress. Looked good but it needed a bit more. I reassembled the tool, oiled it up and rotated it 3 more times. I then removed the cutter, cleaned the bore and inspected my progress. It was as I wanted it, so I stopped any further cutting and cleaned up the revolver and took some pictures. I had two other Pietta .36 caliber 1858 revolvers that I worked on next with good results. One was an older revolver made in 1998 and a newer one made in 2023. I could tell that the older revolver had rifling that was not as nice as the newer revolver because the cutter met more resistance during the cutting process. When it was examined the forcing cone was not as smooth and even as the newer revolver - see pictures of all three revolvers completed forcing cones. All in all I am happy with the results that I got using the forcing cone cutter. Very easy to use but you MUST use a light touch with its use.
