18 SPORTSMAN'S HAND BOOK. 



4th, fivepenny stub, 5<i. per lb.; 5th, silver steel, yd. per 

 ft). ; 6th, Damascus, yd. per ft). No. 2 is twisted into a 

 screw, like Damascus, and is called iron Damascus. This 

 is worked in single rod and double rod that is, two rods 

 put together and rolled into a strip. The same is done with 

 fourpenny and fivepenny stub, and the result is called stub 

 Damascus, but the cheap guns are chiefly made of the iron 

 Damascus. This is the cheapest figured iron. It contains 

 no steel, being generally made of waste screws mixed with 

 other scrap. It requires experience to distinguish it from 

 the true steel Damascus. 



Welding: Best barrels are welded by coiling the strip 

 round a mandrel, and then heating it to a welding heat in a 

 smith's fire; it is then taken out and jumped up on an iron 

 plate on the floor, then put in a swage with a " stamp " or 

 mandrel inside, and hammered down. About three inches 

 are welded at a time. Here I may observe that there are 

 very few welders who use the "stamp" except for a few 

 inches at each end; but best barrels ought to be welded on 

 a stamp throughout. 



History of gun iron: Mr. R. Adams began to make 

 twist iron about the year 1815. He was before that time a 

 tilter of barrel skelps or plates for making plain iron barrels. 

 At that time a great deal of iron was made from swafl or 

 filings, which were first washed and then mixed with scrap, 

 made into a ball, and welded in a smith's forge; this was 

 called " swaff ball drawing." It made very good iron, and 

 was used by lock forgers, breech forgers, and occasionally 

 made into barrels for fowling pieces. In the early time of 

 the barrel trade, there were a number of small forges for 

 making barrel skelps by tilting > one in particular was at 

 Wednesbury Bridge, and here Mr. R. Adams, above men- 

 tioned, worked; and there is no doubt he saw what the 

 trade required. At the close of the French war he began 



