How do I smooth a barrel?

[Model19]

My kit's barrel has many shallow grooves and other marks from manufacturing on the round section that I need to get rid of....I guess.    I've tried sanding but that goes so slowly.  I tried some draw filing, and that cuts faster, but I'm afraid of wrecking the thing that way.
 So how do you guys clean that kind of blemishes up?   I'm leaning to leaving the barrel "in the white" as it's a very late 1600's look I'm after.  But I have no idea of just how clean/finished to make the barrel.

TIA,
 Geoff

[blunderbuss]

Wrap a piece of sand paper around a flat stick and draw file or use a fine file to draw file depending on the depth of groves you want to remove. Sometimes I use a very course file and work down to the finer stuff depending on what needs to be done.

[dannybb55]

The scratches that you put on should be finer than those that you take off. Load your file with chalk and have a file card on hand. A mill file 6 or 8 inches long is what you need for draw filing and count your strokes on the flats to keep everything even. Watch your edges and the middle will take care of itself.

[bob in the woods]

He said the " round section "  ,so not concerned about flats at this time. I use emery, and a hard wood backing that I have " grooved " to the approx barrel dimension.

[WadePatton]

slow is best when you're learning new.

ftr though, i tried chalking my file(s) when draw-filing my current project's colerain bbl.  it cause more problems than it solved.  seemed to make shavings pile up and gouge the bbl.  that's exactly what you want to avoid.  carding is good, but my chalking experience with steel was a no-repeat deal.  i'm sure it's the best way to file non-ferrous items, but mile mileage certainly varied from common lore wrt draw-filing steel.

file, then 80 grit, stay with 80 until all file marks are gone.  if you gouge with the file, you may want to go back to the file to remove the gouge-marks... careful not to repeat them.  

then 120, 150, 220, or so-until you get to the desired finish., never moving fwd until all previous grit marks are removed.  

[dannybb55]

The chalk that I use is soapstone, maybe that is why it works for  me.

[Model19]

Draw filing on flats I get, and is easy, as I have made knives before I started this.  
I'd read of making a block with half the barrel cut in it, but this barrel tapers, so that's not so easy.
Guess it's  just elbow grease and coarse to fine papers on blocks until I get smoothed out.  My forearms will ache for days.  

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

I found that wetsanding works best for me

[bob in the woods]

I haven't found the taper in the barrel to be much of an issue. I neglected to mention that I also use a scraper to get rid of the worst of the machine marks/scratches. I made a couple from old plane blades and they work really well on the barrels I use. Saves a lot of work.

[Jim Kibler]

Standard practice is to just drafwile the round section.   You move the file so as to not create big flat spots.  You can follow up with abrasive paper.  The process is really no big deal at all.  Not difficult and not terribly time consuming.

[WadePatton]

The chalk that I use is soapstone, maybe that is why it works for  me.

noted.

[Jim Kibler]

I might add that if the barrel is wavy, it can be beneficial to angle the file considerably so that a larger length of the barrel is contacted during the initial filing.  This will even things out.

[kutter]

For draw filing, I use a new, sharp, coarse cut file with light pressure. I find it doesn't load up as easy, cuts cleaner and is easily cleaned by simply tapping the file against the vise occasionally to knock any filing out of the large teeth. Never any scars in the polished metal from trapped filings in the teeth drawn accross it.

Criss cross the polishing grits after draw filing to make sure you remove the coarser marks from the previous grit or file.

I angle the grit at about 30degrees or so to the bore. That elliminates the rippled and wavy look when sighting down the tube(s) over what appears to be a nice polishing job by continually bridging the high spots of the surface and cutting them down.
Always polishing the same direction just polishes the imperfections (ripples) in the surface,,instead of polishing them out of the surface.

Just continually going over the barrel in the same lengthwise direction also makes for extra work in polishing as you aren't cutting off the scratches of the coarser grit, just polishing finer ones into it for the most part.

Don't be concerned with the direction of the polishing grit lines till the end. At that point, the only lines in the steel will (should!) be the grit you just finished up with. You can now lengthwise polish the entire assembly and turn all those crisscrossed lines to one direction.

Back your grit cloth, don't just swipe it over the surface with your hand. I've wrapped it over a fine file for years but many use a wood backer or other device.  On round bbls, the last 2 grits I use a thin hard felt glued to a wood block as a backer. The slightly softer surface makes for a finer grain finish and at that point any ripples should be far gone. Be careful at the edges of the muzzle and breech so as not to round those over. Leave them even and sharp.

My experience is with polishing barrels and parts for restoration of SxS and single bbl cartridge guns. The finishes are usually finer grained & higher polished  than most ML bbl's but the polishing process is the same.

[Model19]

I might add that if the barrel is wavy, it can be beneficial to angle the file considerably so that a larger length of the barrel is contacted during the initial filing.  This will even things out.

Never thought of that.  Thanks!  I guess I'll try the draw filing routine again.    I was a little surprised at how the surface of the barrel was so inconsistent when I first saw it.  But I'm sure it beats making one from scratch the old fashioned way.

[mjm46@bellsouth.net]

You can get emory in rolls. Clamp your barrel in a vise and add a support about the middle or so, then take a goodly strip of emory and work it over the round part like your polishing shoes with a rag. Then use progressively finer grits till you get your desired finish.

[Jim Kibler]

I think it's pretty safe to say that a shoe shine method of polish was not typical on 18th century work.  Although it may smooth the surface, it creates a different appearance than polishing in a longitudinal  direction.  This is straight forward and easy.  Drawfile and then used backed abrasive if you desire.  I like to finish up with a bit of scotchbrite to even things up a touch.

[rich pierce]

I've wondered if scrapers were used much on period barrels, especially on round barrels where there was a sort of sighting ramp.

[Jim Kibler]

Unless a scraper has some kind of a body to guide it, or multiple teeth (file), the surface will become wavy pretty fast.  That said, I think a scraper can help remove excess material if used in conjuncion with say a file for leveling the surface.  When visiting with Richard Sullivan from Williamsburg, he showed me a big heavy two handed scraper for peeling off material from a roughly shaped barrel.  He indicated it was effective, but did need to be used with files to create level surfaces.

[bob in the woods]

I agree re the danger of uneven surface effect from the scraper, however, I use them to get the worst of the scratches/ machine marks out. Then go to draw filing. Speeds things up a lot when dealing with rough barrels. I've never had to do it on Rice or Getz, or Rayl barrels

[dannybb55]

Wrought iron is soft enough to carve with steel tools, a draw knife would probably work on the first few passes.