Dec. 13, ipoa.J 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
I 
479 
Modern Methods of Gon-Mafcingf. 
The Manufacture of Iron for Gun Barrels. 
From "The CJun .and lis Development," by W. W. Greeny, 
Gun barrels may be made of plain iron, but as shotgun barrels 
they are wortWess with modern explosives. They may be made 
from solid steel, as are rifle barrels, or they may be made of fig- 
ured irou — that is, of a mixture of iron and steel. 
The method of producing this special material is as follows: 
Pig-iron obtained from a mixture of the best ores is placed in a 
i furnace, melted, and cleansed from all dross by puddling — the 
\ dross, being much lighter than the iron, rises to the surface and 
IS skimmed off. Wlien sufficiently cleansed, the draw-plates of the 
furnace are lowered, the heat reduced thereby, and the liquid 
iron while cooling gathered and worked jnto blooms about one 
hundredweight each. The puddler takes the bloom with a pair 
of tongs, runs with it to the tilt hammer and hands it over to the 
shingler, who, by dexterovisly turning the metal under the ham- 
mer, forms it into a square block and passes it to the roller; it 
is then passed through the various rolls until the required size, 
and drawn out into a bar of about ten feet in length. The ham- 
mering under the heavy tilt condenses the metal and causes the 
dross and scale to fly off. The rollmg increases its ductility and 
tenacity by elongating the fibre. 
If scrap steel is used, it is treated in the same way. But if new 
metal' is employed, the finest qualities of rolled bars are chosen; 
the steels suitable are open hearth and ingot steels produced by 
modern methods, if low in carbon. On account of its purity 
juid uniformity, best .Swedish steel is most usually preferred. 
Steel is not improved by puddling. 
Iron is improved — that is to say, purified — by the processs of 
puddling; so it is usual to take bars of puddled iron, cut them 
nto short lengths, and pile them into faggots. These faggots are 
heated in the draught furnace, welded under the tilt hammer, and 
the block of metal is reheated and hammered for the manu- 
facture of the best barrels, to condense the fibre of the metal 
and increase the specific gravity. After being hammered, the 
Silver-steel Damascus Barrel. 
jlocks are rolled out into bars; these bars are again cut into equal 
engths, laid and fastened into faggots, heated in the furnace, 
nd welded together and rolled into thin, narrow strips. In the 
bove process the ends of the bloom, or extremities of the rods, 
ire cut off and thrown aside, being less dense, and consequently 
"seless for gun iron. 
The loss in the puddling is about 15 per cent., in the shingling 
ad rolling about 14 per cent. ; in reheating the metal it also loses 
:c-nsiderab!y, making a loss of about 40 per cent, in those three 
)rocesses alone; and there are successions of similar losses in 
ach further stage of the manufacture of iron. The proportion- 
_te amount of the diilerent descriptions of metals in a barrel 
Ictermine its quality. The old-fashioned laminated steel was 
omposed of nearly three parts of steel; best English Damascus 
nd modern laminated steel contain over 60 per cent, of steel; 
nd the best silver-steel Damascus contains nearly 75 per cent. 
}l the best worked steel. The amount of steel is determined 
ipon before making the metal into faggots for the last time; if 
or scelp barrels, the strips of iron are twice the thickness of the 
teel, the faggots being formed of alternate layers of iron and 
teel. _ In single iron Damascus barrels the proportion of iron 
ised is not much less than the steel, but the metal for these 
;ommon barrels does not pass through quite so many processes 
,s that for the best barrels, and although far superior in quality 
o ordmary iron, its tenacity and specific gravity is not so great 
s that of the very best gun iron. In best Damascus barrels the 
on and steel are mixed together systematically. 
In the piling of the iron and steel, it is possible to so arrange 
he. metals that many different figures— that is to say, direction 
!i the grain of the metal— result. In the best silver-steel Damas- 
tis, used by the author, the exact proportions of iron and steel 
?ed are such as have been found by experiment to give the great- 
st strength; the figure is fine and uniform. By using more iron 
aan steel, and keeping to the same arrangement of the metals, 
very inferior barrel would result. The tenacity, durability 
nd beautiful figure of the barrels depend almost entirely on the 
roportions and arrangement of the steel and iron, the desiderata 
emg the placing of the iron in the best position to give the 
sgular and fine figure of the finished barrel. 
In piling the iron for the ordinary Damascus twist strips of 
on and steel are laid upon each other alternately. In another 
gure the iron, in lieu of being in strips, is in rods, which are 
ranged so that in cross section they resemble a checker board. 
In prodtjcmg chain twist, diamond twist, and irregular-figured 
d fancy-figured barrels the iron rods are differently piled. They 
Fine Stripe Belgian Damascus Barrel. 
_iy be of hexagonal section, or rhomboidal, or some square and 
lers parallelopipedonical. Combinations of strips and squares 
■5 common on the Contment, where also, instead of plain rods 
bars, the iron and steel used for piling is sometimes of V, L, 
-and other sections or combinations of various figures There 
;ms to be no limit to the varieties of figure obtainable by the 
;angement of the iron and steel in the faggot, and afterward 
tably working the metal. 
The next process is to heat and weld the faggot of piled iron 
Ider*^^ ^ °* ^'^^ ^'^^^ required by the 
[he welder rnay, for a common barrel, have the metal in the 
°j ,^ ^*''',P about tliree quarters of an inch wide and of 
)mboidal section. For a figured barrel it is necessary to have 
■1 rods of square section, and to heat them and twist them upon 
imselves— a process which turns the grain of the alternate strios 
iron and steel running logitudinally from end to end of the 
I m a spiral direction. 
n twisting the rods care is taken to keep the edges of the iron 
H steel strips to the outside, for it is the twisting of the difi^er- 
metals that gives the various figures in the finished barrel 
s Steel, being hard, resists the acids, and retains a white or 
It brow^n hue, while the iron, or softer metal, is so acted upon 
the acid as to be changed into a dark brown or black color 
eighteen pounds of prepared gun iron are required to weld an 
inary pair of 12-gauge barrels, which, when finished, weigh with 
ribs, lumps, and loops but little over three and a half pounds 
er bearing in mind this fact, and considering the great ex- 
^se and loss of expensive steel and iron attending the man- 
^Jure of the metal, and the cost of welding the best barrels 
Vtll.no longer be a matter of wonderment that best guns are 
ensive to produce. 
GuQ Barrel 'Weldiog, 
he methods practiced in manufacturing Damascus barrels 
6r but in unimportant details from each other. The welding 
larrels by hand is still carried on in the author's factory and 
various processes of barrel making as employed there w U be 
; described and illustrated. 
hp square rods of prepared iron are first twisted to give the 
?^cus figure. The rods are about four feet long. Ind are 
;ed in the forge fire until about eighteen inches of the rod is 
■Jght to a red heat, when one end is thrust into a square hole 
I b ock made fast to a frame, and the other end fixed into a 
rable head at the other end of the frame; a rotary motion is 
'SlV^J'',ul\Z'"'l^^-^ ^^^^ '"^^"^ winch \a^dle and 
Wheels; the rod, being square, cannot turn round with the 
f, so IS twisted in itself. The rod is carefully watched while 
^1,^-'°"''' part commence to twist more rapidly than 
Tin"l'i ^^reYSarS? ^^^^^"^ 
Two-Iron Damascus Barrel. 
- a s:j_s~« SJ — lis 
Scelp Gun-barrel. 
Three-Iron Stub Damascus Barrel. 
Single- Iron Damascus Barrd. 
Two-Iron or "Boston" Dama-scus Barrel. 
Portion of Gun-barrel Coil, 
Greener's Solid-Weldless-Twist Gun Barrel. 
Gun-barrel Iron, T\\isted, and Laid into a Riband. 
When finished twisting, the rod will be round, except the 
squares at each end where held in the block and head, and the 
four feet rod will have become shortened to about three feet three 
inches, and have about eight turns to the inch. All Damascus 
barrels must be made of twisted rods, while plain twist or scelp 
barrels are made from plain straight rods or ribands. 
Without this twisting of the rod the finished barrel would have 
the appearance of a wire twist barrel, or it might be of a plain 
barrel if the top or bottom of the rod, instead of one of the 
sides, was kept to the outside of the barrel. By twisting the metal 
the^ gram is so arranged that it appears on the outside of the 
finished barrel in the form of a number of irregular links or 
circles. 
The rod prepared, it is either joined to other rods or coiled 
and welded into a barrel singly. 
The cheapest Damascus barrels (single iron stub Damascus) 
njade from a single twisted bar, rolled out into a riband seven- 
eighths of an inch by one-eighth for the fore end of the barrel 
and seven-eighths by one-quarter for the breech end. 
Two-iron stub Damascus barrels are made from two twisted 
rods, each three-eighths square, and welded together, and rolled 
into a riband five-eighths by one-sixteenth for the fore part, and 
hve-eightha by three-sixteenths for the breech end, with the twisted 
spirals in opposite directions. 
Three-iron stub Damascus barrels are made from three twisted 
rods, each three-eighths by seven-sixteenths, and laid and rolled 
togettier with the spirals, as shown in the illustration, forming a 
riband of one-naif inch by seven-sixteenths for the breech ends 
and one-halt an inch by three-sixteenths for the muzzle piece. 
Hest laminated steel barrels are twisted, and the rods welded 
m the same manner as the stub Damascus, but the rods are 
steef °^ superior metal containing a larger percentage of 
In laminated steel and stub Damascus barrels it is not usual 
to use more than three rods in their manufacture. Fine Damas- 
cus barrels, as manxifactured by the Belgians, are occasionally 
made from four or six rods together, but three are sufficient to 
give a very fine figure. 
The true English Damascus barrel is prepared from three rods, 
twisted as described and put together as shown in the' twisted 
riband, and is known technically as three-iron Damascus ; the sil- 
Tn'a diffe?en"?^ordlr!' "'^ of .difTerent metaK piled 
♦„Blt,i',°^f,,^^'^'°^ twisted and the. require<5l number welded 
together, they are sent to the iron mill and rolled at a red h^t 
JBto nbaads, which feav? both edges beyelH tis? saro? ^07. 
ir'^rip^V o" m^ M^ll'^l/f^"^ Wei, one riband 
form the fore, or m^uzd/tarfo/ thf b'arrlf ^'^^'^"^ 
proc'leds^r.'wisf th'^mlnfot^ VT'^^ ' '^-^P' "-^^^ fi^st 
machine of s mple c^nifrnotinn^'"' ^"^'^^ T^?*^ ^one upon a 
bars, one s^.'d and the other °* '"""^ 
or slot to receive one end nf tl°r^-i'",*''^,,l^" ^here is a notch 
is turned roSnd by a wiLh hnnd?e^"Th. \n^^n^A, the bar 
riband from going round c„ th?t it • ^"^^^ Prevents the 
movable rod like the SecP« rS t Vi J'"^ twisted over the 
loose bar is removed the%?i-iw'f ^^'"^ a. whip-stock. The 
process repeated"with'anothe?'riband''" ^"^ ^'^^ 
heivy. have'^to bl ^ouIVT^T^ ^''1'^' ^'^^'^^ e"^^, if 
twist' them no cogs bein^ used ^V^i,^^^' Possible to 
required, three ribands al .^ff^ ^^''7 '^^^^^ barrels are 
for the center%£d'^o"ife^ foJVe'i^^S^^ ^l,^ ^^^^^ one 
drl^J^n ^c^^if ta°p^r*In5"c^l^d ^^ntd.'T''^ -'T 
tremity is lost as shown f,? tv, ^ ^P"'^' the ex- 
Piece of Dar^ascus iron "Presentation of a coiled breech 
th?^ir.°i^^en^J^"id"thrc*oi^ti^fv'eAe^^ T^^"'^^^' •'--^^'^ 'n 
men are required-one tn hn?^ * "^^"^u hammering. Three 
anvil, and two to strike Th^ Wn^'""" ""^e^^' "P"" grooved 
coil, has also a smaTl hamr^er with which holds the 
show the others in which plaL to strike Ww''i^f 
fire the coil is first beaten unon an irr^^^ taken from the 
and the end opened upon a swa^p fv.^'^*^ ^"^^^ ^^e floor, 
admit of the mandrel bdng iSed P"^"" ^ 
ha'^L?r;i'%'Stlr\\o°r^o?/h%^°^LY/ed'^The'^rei^^^ "P. 
usually about six inches^ loV if joined to ft '^Th.^"h """^ '^^^ i 
is first welded in the same manner ^nrl l, • breech coil 
co l; the two ribands are wlded (o^eth^r^ a 5 '1''"' ^^^'i 
joined into one. and form a WreT ^ Tl^f 'f ^"'^ ' 'H*^ ^''e 
and all the welds made perfect the W^T i'^'"^'!' 
surplus metal removed with a float • heated and the 
mered^ until they are blacl^ lr^'^^rJi^^l^^i^ ^^^.^^^^ 
o^XZ, l^^eTaT^'n"! tf/t?a;"or?re%l'r?el'r*^-^ ' 
• . T^? ^SSf. W ^ octagon barx«l is 
