Barrel Freshening - HDTDT

[Daryl]

Thanks for the pictures, James - and the memories they stirr. Many years ago, I made a 'fresher' just as this one from a design I either saw in Robert's book, or envisioned from it, don't know - probably in 1976.

 I was wanting to 'even up' a .36 cal. Hall Sharon buttoned barrel I bought from Hall in his Kalispel shop in '75. Due to the 'chatter' that resulted in trying to 'deep groove button" rifle that barrel, the interior was quite interestingly horrid.  It was smooth, well, shiny is the proper word, but you couldn't look at a 60 watt light bulb with it - it'd give you a headache.

 I gave up stroking that barrel after over 8 hours and 3 lapps worn out - the cutter was still working, but not well in the seemingly hardened steel, and after that time, I'd barely got one groove relatively smooth - couple or 3 thou down I'd guess.  It was just more work than I was prepared to put into that 'wonderful', but cheap barrel. I think he charged me $25.00 or $30.00 for it.

Loading it as received, was a real pleasure - as I shoved the ball down in one stroke with a steel rod, dtdtdtdtdtdtdtdtdtdtdtdtdtdtdt until the ball was on the powder - every d a loose spot, evey t a tight one -  or was it the other way around?

Anyway, thanks for the memories.

[Dphariss]

Back when I was working on brass suppository guns one of the first 40 cals came in.
The company was having another firm button barrels for them at that time. For some reason the 40 button pulled harder and we had a barreled action come in with a similar barrel to the one Daryl speaks of.
Makes for a really interesting looking interior.
I have seen the result of hiccups in the system that left the button in the barrel when the rod was drawn out.

Dan

[flintriflesmith]

James,

Somewhat off topic but I would be interested in your smooth boring tools, armorers bits / square reamers.  Mine are made from ground files and square tool steel backed by wood with tissue shims.  Man do they cut (scrape) SLOW.  I guess I'm looking for any new (old) tricks of the trade    Used in a brace, the square reamer sure is great for building arm strength 

Thanks,
Lynn

I don't believe square reamers were intended to be used in a brace. The boring machines illustrated on period references have a "great wheel" that provides momentum and some have a belt drive to multiply the RPMs.

Gary

[James Wilson Everett]

Lynn,

Here are some photos of one of the armory reamers that I use.  They do tend to be tough on the arm so I ream a couple of passes, the do another job for a while, and then back for some more passes, you get the idea.  Sort of like rifling, it takes about 6 hours for the 700 or so cuts required.  That six hours may take me a week!

This reamer will fit into a 0.43 minimum bore barrel and I use it up to about 0.56 cal.  It is water quench steel, square in cross section with two corners sharp and two corners dull.  It is fully hard with the exception of the lantern chuck end which is stress relieved.  I shape the tool and quench vertically in brine.  Any resulting warpage is taken away by a flat sheet of abrasive paper on the top flat platten of my table saw.  This will straighten out any warp. 

I do drive it with a brace, although I guess a variable speed drill on slow would be OK also.  I find that the square reamer cuts very aggressively in wrought iron.  The lantern chuck is of brass.  You can put a dab of epoxy to allow the tool to be pulled back if you wish.







The shim is hardwood and I use regular notebook paper for shims & plenty of oil.  It is really interesting how aggressive a cut one of these square armory reamers will take.  (The wood shim is made from a popsicle stick - but don't tell anybody).  I think that I can ream a rough wrought iron barrel to a mirror finish in a couple of hours if I work straight through.  The shim will butt up against the brass lantern so it stays in place.  However I have found that this is not needed as the shim/paper will stay with the reamer and not slip off without the shoulder.

Jim Everett

[LynnC]

Gary
I would agree that a dedicated boring machine would make my life easier
Gotta make the time to build one

[Carper]

In south western Va, my grandfather told me that most of the men who bought one of our rifles would return to have the rifle freshed in the first year. The owners thougth that it made the rifle more accurate. Our thinking was that what was really the case was that the fun of shooting a new rifle led a marksman to shoot more than with an older rifle and thus he did get better with that particular rifle after a year.  Freshening was a pretty good cash maker and really the fairly new rifle did not need it but the customer was always right. These old guys would throw nothing away, we had a fair pile of rods with lead and cutters. As a matter of fact my son nearly punched his cousins ( her) eye out " sword fighting with a pair" She failed her air force exam for such. BTW it was not unusual to make up the rod using the cutter that actually cut the rifles while the rifle was still on the bench in prospect that the gun was coming right back. These old fellows had some odd ideas. When someone would come in wanting a rifle for match shooting vrs hunting, they only cut three narrow rifles in their opinon it would shoot better. Weird , I know.  Johnny

[LynnC]

Thanks for the reply James,

I'm on the road with just a blackberry and look forward to the photos when I get back home

Again, thanks for imparting your experience......Lynn