Rifle bench

[James Wilson Everett]

Guys,

Here is the rifle bench that was used by the gunsmiths Daniel Border, Jonathan Dunmeyer, and Charles Knupp.  It is the only original bench that I have ever seen that still has the attached rifle groove cutter in place.  The guide is an older rifle barrel, 9 groove, mounted in bearings so it can be rotated to cut the grooves.  The wheels at the end of the bench allow for either a 7 or 6 groove barrel to be cut.  The bed is just a half log rough broad axed.  Right now the guide is jammed, a cast lead section in the guide barrel, perhaps later it can be made to move.  The only missing parts seem to be the bench legs, the guide pull handle and the barrel clamp screws.  The gunsmiths used this bench from the mid 19th c to the early 20th c.

Jim

[Acer Saccharum]

Cool stuff, Jim. Thank you.

[mattdog]

I love it.  Thanks for posting it.

[Thawk]

That is really cool.  Wish I could see it up close.  Like in my shop close.

[Robby]

Nice!!!! Thanks for sharing!!
Robby

[David R. Pennington]

 As always Jim your posts are fascinating. What area did these smiths work? Make sure I understand, the barrel in place is guide for the twist rate? There is a lead follower in the barrel that guides the rifling rod? Wonder what the rate of twist is? I assume the pins around the circumference of the iron wheel are locked by the iron bar on top to index each groove being cut. I've never seen a rifling bench without the traditional wooden external spiral guide.

[Mark Tyler]

 Daniel Border was a Bedford County, Pennsylvania gunsmith. Both Jonathan Dunmeyer and Charles Knupp worked in neighboring Somerset County. May I ask where the bench is located? I would like to see it in person. Thanks for posting.

[Gaeckle]

This is an interesting segway into a discussion concerning how to tell if a barrel is old......look at the width of lands versus that of the groove: very narrow groove, deep, but wide lands.

I wonder what the twist is and I would suspect it to be somewhere around 1 turn in 60 ( a guess actually). I wonder if the cutter is iron or steel (both hardened I would believe)

[Acer Saccharum]

I've got a Turkish relic, probably 16th Century, wide lands, deep Vee grooves.

[James Wilson Everett]

Guys,

Using an existing rifled barrel as the guide or cam for the rifling machine appears to be a rather common technique that was used in the mid-19th c and later.  The Border rifle bench is now in the collection of the Somerset Pennsylvania Historical Center.  Here are some photos of the Fry brothers rifling guide that was at one time attached to a similar bench, you can see the cylindrical spaces on the barrel outside that allowed the guide to be rotated in bearings to set the groove spacing.  This one is at the Fort Ligonier Pennsylvania museum.  Unfortunately the Fry complete rifling bench "grew legs" and walked out of the museum in recent years and nobody knows where it is.  The disc at the end allowed for the locking in place for the groove spacing by a spring pin engaging the various holes.  The disc allowed for the barrel to be rifled with 7 or 8 grooves as needed.

Jim