rifling rods

[Gaeckle]

Holy Smokes!  Gaeckle - you are talking about a lot of research here, that I haven't done.

THEREFOR - I hereby assign this work to you!  The rods are a part of a great collection of the Fry's gunsmith tools in the collection at the Fort Ligonier museum in Ligonier, Pa.  So get in there and get to work - give us a report!

Good Luck
Jim Everett

......that may be something I'll give a shot at................

[James Wilson Everett]

Guys,

Here is another tool from the Fry gunsmith tool collection.  I believe that it would qualify as a rifling rod, not a freshening rod.  Actually just the cutter head, but I cannot be sure on this one.  Let me know if there are any other explanations out there for this tool. 

The rod is 10 inches long 5/16 diameter with the obvious recess for the cutter bit.  It is iron/steel with some traces of brass on the surface, like some braze material that is nearly worn off - I do not know any reason for this feature.  What is interesting is that the rod is actually a thin walled tube with a wood core.  Looking into the open end I can see no evidence of threads - how was it attached?







The last photo shows one of the paper shims that I removed from the cutter recess.  I wish this one could speak to us more clearly.

Jim Everett

[Frank Savage]

First, many thanks for Your effort to show us some "how to" hints and original tooling, which is very inspirative and clearly shows that some tasks were easier with former technology than with what we have now. Also a perfect show of KISS procedures and gadgets, which gorgeous and enginer-demanding genility build in them.

I have just heard about such a tool, sadly havenīt oportunity to inspect it myself.

Over 99,999% a rifling rod. I bet that you can see that the wood on (I suppose) the left end is broken, or thereīs evidence of sawed off/twisted off/somehow else disturbed piece of steel rod. Or maybe you can find pair of tiny holes for cross pins...
Itīs a brass-brazed tube made of sheet iron/steel. One edge of the sheet was peened or filed into wedge shape, then turned around some kind of mandrel with excess material on non-wedged side, forming a "gutter" adjacent to the tube-good for fluxing and adding the brass. Then filed off and round, but some of the brass of course remains around the seam. I bet you can find evidence of that seam, but it might be totaly covered by the brass.
Then it was (probably while hot) put on a well dried (probably also while hot) wooden stick. Way less work to form the cutter seat then. From the photo, I suppose itīs some 36-40 cal, which a bit surprises me-from what I have heard about such a design, it was used for 25-36 cal., where forminga cutter seat into steel rod is realy tricky task.  Also it might be an aprenticeīs tool, which teached him how to braze precisely (wish I can do that in such a lenght...) and gave him functionable, but more forgiving option to form a cutter seat.

[James Wilson Everett]

Frank,

Thanks for the reply and for your insight.  I would never think about making a tube, but I guess someone had to do the job.  Probably we will never know for sure.  The next time I inspect this one I will look more closely for a braze seam and for some sort of attachment mechanism.  One thing, my impression is that this is a very well worn tool that has seen a whole lot of use. 

Jim Everett

[Frank Savage]

Insight... I would say result of stressuous experience of making brazed RR and entry pipes out of a cold rolled sheet, which virtualy crawls off the bench after hitting with torch.

If itīs well worn, it may be impossible to vizualy find the seam. I have made (not speaking about my father) brazed joints, where I took 20x magnifiing glass and asked myself where the $#*! the seam is. Someone who is able to braze in such a lenght and thickness is way better than me.
If Iīm right with my idea:
you can see that the "top" edge (top in the photos provided) is more straight than the lower one. I would say that thereīs the seam.