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How did they rifle barrels in the "olden days"??
- Thread starter xyzman44
- Start date
Rob Pincus
New member
In the real olden days, they used to Pound a cutting tool down through the barrel, and as the tool went through, it rotated.
There is a cool reproduction of this process at the TN State Museum in Nashville.
There is a cool reproduction of this process at the TN State Museum in Nashville.
Gale McMillan
Member In Memoriam
They drilled the barrel with a brace and a 10 foot drill stem. They would set a small boy on a stool so that he could line up the drill stem with a line on the wall. When the drilled would get the drill high or low the boy would tell him so he could straighten it up. After it was drilled he reamed it with a square reamer that had a shim of wood on the back side. By putting paper between the wood shim and reamer you could increase the size of hole you reamed. To rifle it you used a pull scraper which was hooked to a long strap that had been twisted a certain number of times per barrel length . This strap ran between two rollers so as it was pulled it rotated the scraper. Each time it was pulled through and pushed back it would be adjusted out to scrape another .ooo5 of an inch. After you reached the desired depth for that groove you rotated the index plate which turned the rod so many degrees for the next groove. This was repeated till you had the desired number of grooves. The first barrel I ever made was made this way on a set of tools that was over 100 years old.
I saw a show on the Discover Channel I think that showed some Afghani armorers making barrel that way for an anti-aircraft gun. It is amazing that these people in the desert can make and fix guns that the "developed" countries have to send to a fully equiped machine shop to do. Imagine using a torch and files and other small hand tools to make almost everything. Those guys are truly amazing.
Gale McMillan
Member In Memoriam
When I was in Pakistan I saw guns made in shops that didn't have electricity . Made with a hammer and file. I thought I was a gunsmith till I saw these fellows at work. I looked at a copy of a S&W revolver that while you could tell it was a copy was not all that bad.
Prior to about the 1880's there was no way to drill a straight hole in a bar of steel. There were several ways to get around this.
One was to use a mandrel, which was an iron rod of less than bore diameter and wrap strips of red hot iron or steel (or mixed) around the mandrel, welding them as you went. This is how so-called "Damascus" barrels were made.
Another method was to heat a flat bar of steel and bend it lengthwise around the mandrel, welding the edges when they met. This is how many Civil War musket barrels were made.
The third way was to drill a hole in a short thick bar, then heat it, insert the mandrel, and draw it out in rollers until it was close to the right diameter. No matter how they were made, the barrels were then turned on a lathe or ground, reamed to the correct bore diameters, and the rifling cut.
Rifling was cut by the "scrape method" in which a cutter was drawn through the barrel to make a shallow cut. The cutter bar was attached to a guide, with spiral cuts in it which guided the cutter. One shallow cut was made, the cutter rotated, the next shallow cut, and so on until all the rifling was cut, but shallow. Then the cutter head was shimmed to cut a little deeper, and the process repeated until the grooves were of the desired depth.
Modern rifling is usually cut by either button rifling, in which a carbide plug with the rifling in reverse is forced through a barrel by compressed fluid (air or hydraulic), or by hammer forging, in which a mandrel with rifling in reverse is inserted in the barrel and the barrel hammered (cold forged) around it until the rifling is impressed into the barrel. This produces a series of spiral hammer marks on the outside of the barrel, which most makers grind off, but which some leave as a trademark and a unique appearing finish.
Jim
One was to use a mandrel, which was an iron rod of less than bore diameter and wrap strips of red hot iron or steel (or mixed) around the mandrel, welding them as you went. This is how so-called "Damascus" barrels were made.
Another method was to heat a flat bar of steel and bend it lengthwise around the mandrel, welding the edges when they met. This is how many Civil War musket barrels were made.
The third way was to drill a hole in a short thick bar, then heat it, insert the mandrel, and draw it out in rollers until it was close to the right diameter. No matter how they were made, the barrels were then turned on a lathe or ground, reamed to the correct bore diameters, and the rifling cut.
Rifling was cut by the "scrape method" in which a cutter was drawn through the barrel to make a shallow cut. The cutter bar was attached to a guide, with spiral cuts in it which guided the cutter. One shallow cut was made, the cutter rotated, the next shallow cut, and so on until all the rifling was cut, but shallow. Then the cutter head was shimmed to cut a little deeper, and the process repeated until the grooves were of the desired depth.
Modern rifling is usually cut by either button rifling, in which a carbide plug with the rifling in reverse is forced through a barrel by compressed fluid (air or hydraulic), or by hammer forging, in which a mandrel with rifling in reverse is inserted in the barrel and the barrel hammered (cold forged) around it until the rifling is impressed into the barrel. This produces a series of spiral hammer marks on the outside of the barrel, which most makers grind off, but which some leave as a trademark and a unique appearing finish.
Jim
I live near Nauvoo Illinois wher they have the original tools he made black powder
rifles and from what I gathered was they beat several strips of steel around a rod type anvil, made em octagon and rifled them
with a long screw rod with a cutter on the end, each groove was cut separate, and if ya go down to the blacksmiths shop he makes nail wedding rings for the kids and you if ya want one. and they stick that red hot metal into used oil and it blackens it, he
tells how the first smith dropped a hot metal into cow flop and turned black, yada
yada, and go gambling in Iowa afterwards:}
rifles and from what I gathered was they beat several strips of steel around a rod type anvil, made em octagon and rifled them
with a long screw rod with a cutter on the end, each groove was cut separate, and if ya go down to the blacksmiths shop he makes nail wedding rings for the kids and you if ya want one. and they stick that red hot metal into used oil and it blackens it, he
tells how the first smith dropped a hot metal into cow flop and turned black, yada
yada, and go gambling in Iowa afterwards:}