From: Robert Bastow <
[email protected]>
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.metalworking
Subject: Re: DELURK: matchlock gun barrels
Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1999 05:39:10 GMT
richgoth, sydney wrote:
> Black powder develops pressures of up to 25,00psi...
Whoaa!
Where did you get THAT idea!!
It is a MYTH that can KILL you!
BP can develop pressures WAY over 25000psi !
If you want to make your own barrels, use mechanical DOM (Drawn over mandrel)
hollow bar. Use MILD STEEL not 4140..it is easier to cut and has better
elongation. No need for fancy stuff unless you are using jacketed bullets. With
lead bullets you are likely to wear it out from cleaning LONG befor you shoot it
out.
It is spec'ed by O/d and wall thickness, thus 1 1/4" - 3/8" wall will give you a
half inch bore. Unless you are fussy about a particular bore diameter..which
the old time gunmakers never were..you are ready to rifle and lap.
Then take a LARGE (14") mill bastard file to the outside, and remove all the
bits that don't look like a rifle barrel. Hard work, but it goes surprisingly
quickly! If I had to do one today, I would do it by hand (might cheat a bit on
the big belt grinder)..but it is how it was done, and it IS faster than setting
up on the mill!! Especially if you want a nice, elegant, swamped muzzle.
The old gunsmiths made beautiful barrels with what appears, to the modern
layman, to be crude tools. But the principles are sound and they work as well
today as they did then. I HAVE made rifle barrels (very accurate ones too) by
the same methods...and, because I was in the UK at the time, for the same
reasons and under the same restrictions.
You certainly don't need a lathe, but neither do you need to go welding up your
tubes from reclaimed horseshoe nails.(Though I do know a guy that welds his own
four wire Damascus Twist barrels, and they are works of art!!)
The old gunsmiths would have died to have hollow bar available from the local
Metal Supermarket!! ;^)
Indeed, one of the first, widely distributed iron/steel mill products was
octagonal hollow bar for rifle makers!! Octagonal because it was easier to roll
it thus, and it stayed octagonal because it is quicker and easier to file and
finish it thus! (..and you always thought..!!) ;^)
You sound like someone who enjoys the research aspect of this too. I can
suggest no better beginning than books like Ned Robert's "The Muzzle Loading
Caplock Rifle" It is out of print..but not rare or expensive. Start your
search in OZ with Michael Treloar Antiquarian Books in Adelaide (+61 8 8223
1111 <
[email protected]> )
Say Hi to Sue for me!! I just ordered an OOP, two volume, Slip Covered, Limited
Ist Edition of "The Bolt Action - A Design Analysis" by Prescott, from them.
Now that IS rare and expensive..so they might be taking a vacation when you
call!! 8^(
teenut