Steel from India

[matt denison]

After reading the threads about burst barrels and steel from India, China, Argentinia, I want to relate something I know about India steel.

In 1992 I saw a segment on 60 Minutes about India making an effort to boost its economy by creating industrys to employ their population. One of the things that they were doing at that time was buying up SCRAP STEEL on the world market. The U.S. navy used to scuttle old ships miles out in the ocean. Now they were selling those huge hulks for scrap and India was the buyer. They showed film of an Indian fellow, wearing shorts, sandles, no protective clothing weilding a huge cutting torch to cut the side out of a US ship and watching a several ton piece of it crash to the ground. The point is, we are now buying stuff made in India that is recycled ships and Chevy bumpers. India doesn't have iron ore deposits. So where do you think those musket barrels, locks etc. come from? I hope this doesn't sound political, I don't mean it to be. I just think that people should be aware of what they are buying when they get an inexpensive gun made in India.

Matt

 

[tg]

it may have been the same show, that showed the cottage gun industry in that area where people where making anything from ML's to automatic weapons in thatched huts with crude forges and minimal machinery.

 

[Va.Manuf.06]

"The U.S. navy used to scuttle old ships miles out in the ocean."

News to me, they have always cut ships up for scrap for both the domestic and foreign market. True, some have been sunk but it was to provide artificial reefs for for the fishing industry and during nuclear testing - no use hauling back radio-active ships for recycling. There is a lot of high grade steel in ships.

 

[Va.Manuf.06]

it may have been the same show, that showed the cottage gun industry in that area where people where making anything from ML's to automatic weapons in thatched huts with crude forges and minimal machinery.

tg, that is Afghanistan you are thinking of isn't it?

 

[peashooterJoe]

Pakistan, I saw several different firearms made there. They used sand casting and finished by hand. Was rather rough but functioned quite well.

 

[gacitizen]

I think you are right about it being in Pakistan. Amazing, pour some molten steel into a hole in the ground and out comes a semi-auto pistol. :shocked2:

 

[mudd turtle]

Well said Matt. Mudd Turtle.

 

[slowpokebr549]

I watched a show about this once several years ago.They showed the whole destruction process in time lapse photography. It looked like an ant farm attacking an old freighter. They got the boilers up to steam and ran the poor old ship up on the mud at high tide, then as the tide ran out, a million swaddled Indians laid boards out on the mud flats and attacked the hulk with sledgehammers, torches and chisels. Amazing what humans can accomplish with hand tools and motivation.

 

[Darkgael]

"we are now buying stuff made in India that is recycled ships and Chevy bumpers."
At least you know that the steel is good. The methods of manufacture and quality control may be not what we expect.
Pete

 

[oldwolf]

It was Pakistan where the weapon copies were being made in villages.

 

[Va.Manuf.06]

it may have been the same show, that showed the cottage gun industry in that area where people where making anything from ML's to automatic weapons in thatched huts with crude forges and minimal machinery.

tg, that is Afghanistan you are thinking of isn't it?

No oldwolf, it is Afghanistan. Try this, didn't have the link when I posted above:
[url] http://www.armscollectors.com/darra/darra.htm[/url]

These guys have been legendary since the British ruled that part of the world.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

Great link, Thanks for that! :grin:

 

[tg]

It may have been Afgahastan but I beleive the Pakistan, Indian area harbors the same type of thing, at times in history where you stood might determine which country you were in

 

[peashooterJoe]

Where I was standing it was Pakistan, would have been shot if it had been Afganistan.There were several villiages in that corner of the world making arms at the time was told..

 

[Bubba45]

There was a segment on this past weekend on the India manufacturing of muskets without any modern means.Amazing how they were making locks without even a micrometer. Squatting on a dirt floor in front of a vise for hours on end.They took a 200 year old barrel out and loaded it with bp and dirt packed in instead of lead to prove it still solid then cut one up to show the odd venturi type chamber they employ on the old matchlocks the make.