OK So Colt was using grinders for the cylinder stock, correct?
What colt used in that time frame I don’t know .
What is the difference between a draw file and a grinder? What is a draw file?
Draw filing is the process of using a file and sometimes a jig so as to take a barrel bank from forged rough to either octagon or round . The file is pulled along the barrel as in using a draw knife .
the blank would be put in a channel vise and one flat filed on it .
Its then rolled and a flat drawn on the other side . This is repeated until you 8 sides or an octagon barrel . To make that barrel round . You then start drawing down each of the points . The result is that each time the barrel flats get smaller and you get a more round object . This would produce your polygon which depending on the beginning dimensions of the cylinder , might not be completely removed during lathe work . If lathe work was used .
Surly at some time Colt went to using lathe production but I doubt it would have been done early on.
Grinders that I have seen were simple stone wheel grinders much like we have today . Some spun vertically , others horizontally .
Bar stock would be forged then left in hammered state for the end user OR trued depending on the product , by running it through roller mills/ presses and or grinders
I see. So the effect of the draw file is that it forms the surface of the stock to a polygonal shape. Correct? And then the grinder would make it more round. This would not be perfect and leave a subtle polygonal shape to the cylinder. This makes sense since hamner forging IMHO would of been impractical in a manufacturing environment. Also the cylinder of my Baby Dragoon seems to support this method being used. As a side note, I imagine there would be a tradeoff to allowing the grinder to spend more time to make a more precise round shape.
all bar stock would have been hammer forged . in the small shop it would have been by blacksmith work . in large scale manufacturing like at Liege , large mechanical hammers were employed .
today our barr stock is made by eather drawing or exstruding from the fernace . its then ran through roller mills to make the nice round , true barstock
If one reads up on firearms manufacturing in this country , it is very quickly noted that even our Arsenals were using technology that was 100 to 150 years old .
While we had the best Iron in the world , we couldn’t make steel for crap .
When we did learn the process of steel manufacturing which we got from the English , we couldnt make proper barrels from it . that’s why complete barrel manufacturing companies were purchased and moved to the US. Again those companies were in England
Again in not saying this was how your cylinder was done . Simply put I don’t know .
But it was the common way of making barrels in this country tell the mass importation of barrels and barrel blanks began to flood the market in the 2nd half of the 19th century .
I seemed to recall reading of Colt having to admit the use of imported barrels and barrel stock during congressional hearings