Rifling a barrel

[Ken G]

For the last couple of days I've been at Steve Bookout's learning the finer points of rifling a barrel.  I'm on barrel 2 and it's been a learning experience for sure.  I thought some might find the pictures interesting. 
Making a cutter head

Barrel locked in place.

Me running the Rifler

Cutter doing its job

Bookie giving me a spell.  Oh, that's Tim Crowe over to the left working on a made from scratch Mule Ear Lock

[Madcaster]

 Great thread,great pictures,thank you Sir!

[Dave B]

Great shots. What are you using for cutting oil? Are your cutters teath hooked or scraper type? I enlarged the photos and it looks almost like a saw blade with the front leading edge being 90 degrees. looks like a good way to get some excersise.

[jim m]

sounds like a great experience. how many moon pies did it cost you, and any of these barells for your personal use.

[Birddog6]

I take it you are cutting one groove at a time ?  So how do you know how far to cut each groove ?  Stop & measure with a depth gauge or does the cutter have a stop on it & it cuts til it quits cutting or what ?

The only really important thing I see missing from these photos, is ME !!            

[P.Bigham]

Ken looks like fun how long does It take? was that a Blank or a Forged barrel? Thanks for Posting.

[don getz]

Birddog.......the cutter only works in one groove at a time, but, after it quits removing metal, you would index the barrel,
or the cutter, to the next  groove and cut it to the same depth as the last one.  After you have done this to all grooves,
you would raise the cutter, by whatever means Bookie uses.  He probably uses cigarette paper to raise the cutter, this
is the normal stuff people use in an "old fashioned" machine like this.  By the way Bookie, that a nice looking rifling machine.  It's kind of fun to rifle your own barrel by this method, and it does a good job, but sure wouldn't want to do it
for a living.  For all of you guys that go to Dixon's, have you gone down in the garage to watch the Harntraft boys do
their thing with a barrel.  They also have a great rifling machine and have developed a great scrape cutter to use with it.
Don

[Dave B]

Don,
When you say scrape cutter, is that the one where the bit looks like little triangles? Is there an Ideal angle for a scrape cutter teeth?

[AndyThomas]

COOL! I want one!

If anyone would like to bring a rifling bench to the October event at Martin's Station, October 10-12, let me know. We would love to have a rifling demo there. Actually, we would like to have any type of 18th century gun building demo.

Anyone interested let me know. I have a spare bedroom (and a den with a couch that turns into a bed). You can stay with me.

Email me at flintlockandy@msn.com

[P.W.Berkuta]

This is the rifling bench from Dixon's 2008. The cutter was a series of 4 or 5 "teeth" filed at about 30 degrees to the axis of the shaft. I cut a few grooves and the cutter slid in and out of the bore like riding on goose sh%$.

[Blackpowder Barbie]

For those of you headed to Friendship this weekend you can not only see several of these antique machines in action, but also help do the rifling!!  All Day Saturday "The Gun Shop" fellas will be out back of Gunmaker's Hall rifling barrels using several Antique rifling machines.  Question and Answer session will follow that evening starting around 8pm.  Then the guys will pack up sometime midday Sunday I'd assume, depending upon if they finished the barrels we have to rifle or not.  Hope to see ya'll there!!

[don getz]

Ken or Bookie.....in looking at the rifling machine, I was trying to figure out how you indexed the barrel to the next groove.
From the first picture, it appears the barrel is locked into place, without having the ability to turn it to another groove, so
you must be indexing the cutter?  Does it merely cut the number of grooves that you have in the rifling guide, and you
merely go to another groove in it when you are finished cutting in one groove?.....Don

[Ken G]

I'll do the best i can to answer some of the questions and I'll post some more pics this evening. 
We are using hog lard and peanut oil for lub.   I'd rather not mention the amount of Moon Pies but you can look at Steve and see he's a good sized feller so you can use your imagination as to how many Moon Pies it took to keep him energized.    
We are cutting the grooves one at a time.  The barrel is stationary and the rifler is indexed for the next groove.  When it stops cutting then cigerette paper is added underneath the cutter blade to add more presure.  I've completed 2 barrels.  One took a little over 3 hours (42", .45 cal.)and the second, which was a 4 footer took me 4 hours.  The 45 cal. is a Bookout hand forged barrel. 
Here's a couple of better pictures of the cutter head and it doing its work.

[Scott Bumpus]

How many passes do you generally make before shimming the cutter up?

[Carper]

Ken: Glad to see that you finally rifled a barrel. Was I not correct in saying it was about a three hour job after the barrel was locked down?  I got the impression that some folks doubted the 3 hour time. Glad to hear you say it took you about that long. On my cutter the hickory rod is split and the papers are glued to a shim inside the split but the cutters look about the same. Was the process not much easier than one would imagine?   Johnny

[tim crowe]

Carper,

You are correct about the shorter rifling times.  Bookie has one Barrel he rifled in 58 mins I believe he said. Ken no doubt could confirm the time since he is still down there. Bookie has rifled somewhere around 100- 130 barrels so he has been around the block with the finer points of rifling. He uses a 5 groove left hand twist so his barrels will shoot left around a tree and knock a squirrel off the backside.

Tim Crowe

[Ken G]

Maplebutcher,
It varied but somewhere around 40 passes on each groove. 
Carper,
You are correct.  I would not doubt one bit that Bookie and with the aid of one of his accomplished helpers could have rifled the barrel in a much shorter time even with it being a 4 footer.  Seems I ask a lot of questions.    
The process was easier than I imagined and with Bookie's tutoring I'm no long feared to give it a whirl on my own.  I just have to figure out how to convience the wife the run the rifler.   

Tim,
It was a pleasure meeting you!  You are a scholar and a gentleman.  I can't wait to see how the mule ear lock you are scratch building turns out.

Ken 

[Steve Bookout]

     Swab, there you go again!  Eveyone is going to think I'm spookier than I really am.  Glad you showed up and glad you made it back home safely.  If I have another free barrel welding seminar next January -March, I expect you to be back here doing some demonstration on the subject.  Ken is really proud of that old barrel he finished.  Once everybody left and we worked by ourselves, we really made some hay while the sun was shining.  We need to get you barrel drilled, reamed, and rifled.  Maybe even breeched.  I have the breech drill bit finished, so you'd be all set to go.  Yes, I have rifled a 28" barrel in 58 minutes.  My best four-footer  time is just a tad under 3 hours.  The grooves average between 5-7 thou. with the exception of the military barrels and only go to 3.  My rifling books are dedicated to Don Getz, another old curmudgeon (who has made one, maybe two barrels in his life time) like my self, and who is what I consider the "King" of barrel makers.  The first case of 50 Moon Pies is down to 4 remaining since Monday morning.  I should have been able to polish the whole thing off before you left last night, so I must be coming down with something!  Finally got logged back onto the site, so you'll be having to put up with me again. Cheers,  Bookie

[tim crowe]

Ken,
I would like to see the forged barrel that Bookie made rifled and built when you are done. It was great meeting you and look foreword to Jan -March gathering at Bookies.
 This Sat. I start forging the next barrel .

Bookie,
Thanks for the time down there.I learned alot about rifling,making mule ear lock,and a Hog rifle butt plate . The scrap cherry is being glued up for a rifler too.
Tell Don Fulkerson hi!

Swab

[don getz]

Bookie.....I should come out an visit, and maybe try to get you straightened out, maybe even share a moon pie with you.
I kind of miss the good times we had at Conner Prairie, and I think the last time I saw you was at the Bevel Boy's chunk
shoot.  Do you still go to their shoots?  I might fly out to visit and help score, would be fun to see so many good friends.
Don

[Steve Bookout]

     Don, you are more than welcome at my place.  Yep.  I still head down to Lowell and Joey's little match.  Just gave Joey my fee for the one upcoming.  Hope you make it.  Lowell will need the help since his accident.  Angus and I were just talking tonight about making a couple of curly maple swamped barrel walking sticks (like the one we tried to steal from you at the Sgt. York shoot last year).  Also, thanks for the nice compliment about my rifler.  Coming from you, it's like getting a medal.

[don getz]

Bookie.....maybe John failed to tell me, but, I didn't know about Lowell having an accident.  What's the story here....
Don

[Steve Bookout]

Don, The info I received was that ol' Bevel Up was grabbing a bag of trash as he walked past and promptly pulled four muscles awry .  I can't tell you how totally accurate that is, but he is most definitely injured.  Joey was the only one of the two who attended my chunk gun shoot 2 weeks ago.  Bookie

[don getz]

Thanks Bookie....I know what that's all about.  I screwed up my lower back about two weeks ago, hurts like h____.
Have been going to a "chiro........" several times a week since then.   I have never been a chiropractic person, and still
don't believe some of the things the profess, but, it is slowly improving.....it might have done that on it's own...Don