Kelly/Weberton barrels

[snapper]

Anyone have any info on this barrel maker?   

thanks

Fleener

[T*O*F]

I've got one of his chunk gun barrels.  Since you like to shoot laying down, maybe you should buy it.

[snapper]

I would look funny just lying there with a barrel.

Are they any good?   what type of steel was used?

Fleener

[Dave B]

He made me a 52" rifle barrel for my Andrew Verner project.  He couldnt swamp it for me so I had him make it tapered  and I hand swamped it my self. I will never do that again. It was a good shooting barrel. Not many folks can rifle one that long.

[Curtis]

Used a tapered .54 on an Ohio rifle for my son, it shoots pretty good.  Been a few years since I shot it and I couldn't give you an actual group size.  He used to set up right by the range across from the blacksmith shop at Friendship.  I think I still have one of his advertisement flyers, I will try to find it and see if he mentions the type of steel he used.



Curtis

[R.J.Bruce]

He makes a lot of barrels for DOC White. I don't know what type of steel he uses.

[Mike Brooks]

I had him make me 3 of them 30 years ago. WIDE lands, VERY narrow grooves, all .54 swamped, one 54" long. I used two of them, couldn't get them to shoot. The 3rd one I had Hoyt bore out and rifle the last one. Have it in a stock blank now, I'm sure it will shoot well once it's stocked up. I'd not buy another, too many good barrel makers out there.

[retired fella]

Several years ago I visited him at his shop Fayetteville, Ohio ?  Quite an impressive setup in my eye.  If you ever spent any time with Walt you know he can carry on a conversation.  I always stopped to chat with him at Friendship.  Never had any experience with his barrels however.

[alacran]

I like the Violin finish that he sells.

[Clowdis]

I like the Violin finish that he sells.

Do you use the violin finish on gunstocks? Thought it was too soft for stocks? Just curious.

[Dphariss]

I like the Violin finish that he sells.

Do you use the violin finish on gunstocks? Thought it was too soft for stocks? Just curious.

Actually a true "violin" varnish would be too hard for gunstock use. Instrument finishes, and those used for furniture are designed for indoor use or at least not being exposed to the elements and wild temperature swings. They are harder. Generally speaking finishes used on musical instruments are made with harder and more expensive resin than those generally used on gunstocks which usually used cheaper resins like Rosin or maybe Gum Arabic which are also far easier to combine with the oil. They were softer and more elastic. Furniture and instrument finishes were more water resistant than most original gunstock varnishes but when exposed to the environment the gunstock endures they tend to crack and check and then leak water like a sieve and the process accelerates. A good gunstock varnish will not even crack when slightly dented. This info is from Bill Knight. If I remember it right.
Dan

[Clowdis]

[/quote]
Actually a true "violin" varnish would be too hard for gunstock use. Instrument finishes, and those used for furniture are designed for indoor use or at least not being exposed to the elements and wild temperature swings. They are harder. Generally speaking finishes used on musical instruments are made with harder and more expensive resin than those generally used on gunstocks which usually used cheaper resins like Rosin or maybe Gum Arabic which are also far easier to combine with the oil. They were softer and more elastic. Furniture and instrument finishes were more water resistant than most original gunstock varnishes but when exposed to the environment the gunstock endures they tend to crack and check and then leak water like a sieve and the process accelerates. A good gunstock varnish will not even crack when slightly dented. This info is from Bill Knight. If I remember it right.
Dan
[/quote]

Thanks Dan, very interesting. Somewhere I had read that violin finishes were soft and you could actually leave a fingerprint in some of the old finishes that would level over in a few days. Didn't mean to sidetrack the original thread.

[alacran]

I put kelly's violin finish on top of Chambers oil finish. It changes the look of Chamber's to a different luster. To me it gives depth.  I've had guns with it on some pretty crappy Eastern weather.  Give Kelly a little time and he ill show you rifles he has done completely with it. Claims he got the recipe from a luthier.

[Eric Kettenburg]

A barrel thread that becomes a varnish thread.  Interesting! 

There is no single, definable "violin finish" or "violin varnish."  In the past five centuries there has been a huge variety of finishes applied to stringed musical instruments.  Some are soft, some are hard, some are fragile, some are not so fragile.  And probably every natural resin under the sun has been utilized on an individual or regional scale.

There is a definite, documentable history of highly colored varnishes being used in the areas of old Northampton Co. (now Northampton and Lehigh) and eastern Berks Co. as well as into upper Bucks Co.  Many of these are resin varnishes in an alcohol base, what most people refer to as 'violin varnishes.'  They are not the greatest thing in the world to be applying to a gunstock intended for exterior use, but conversely, by the time these finishes seem to have become popular in the region, I don't think these guns were being used too hard and I doubt anyone was dragging their fancy Kuntz rifle through the rain and mud for weeks at a time.

Anyway.  Some "violin finishes" are spirit based, some are actually oil based.  Some involve no heat at all in manufacture, some involve scary heat around flammable materials initiating the rumination while making them that you had a full asbestos suit. 

Nowadays, a whole lot of people call just about any varnish or wood finish with resins added a "violin finish."

[snapper]

As the original thread poster, I am fine if you guys want to talk varnish, no problems.

I got what I needed regarding the barrels, so I am good.

Thanks

Fleener