Most barrels and locks were purchased even before the Rev-War.
Dan
And your evidence for this statement is ,,,,, what??
John
[/quote]
For example.
1764 May:
Stock in the Gunstocking Shop
233 gunstock blanks
15 English Rifle barrels
15 locks for the above....
1766 Nov:
...12 forged rifle barrel blanks
14 finished /manufactured rifle locks
2 Do rifle locks
1 Do
1 Do
2 rifle locks made in the gunshop....
[This appears to indicate that they bought 18 locks and made 2.]
From "Moravian Gun Making of the American Revolution"
By the Rev-war there were barrel forgers who did nothing but weld and probably bore gun barrels. There were also numerous "boring and grinding mills" where barrels were bored and then ground octagonal but may not have had a forge. A look at many old barrels will show the bottom 3 flats still have the grind stone marks that have never been removed. When the forging and boring was combined in one plant I could not say from what documentation I have. Kauffman tells us that owners of boring mills etc were often listed as gunsmiths since they made gun parts.
In "Moravian Gun Making" we learn that J. Dickert was buying barrels from the shop. But then we have to ask if they were making barrels from flat stock or were then buying them rough forged and them boring and rifling them? I suspect the later but perhaps
not exclusively. Rough forging 15 barrels, for example, would be a lot of hammering and little else being done in a shop with one master and an apprentice or two until they were done. Maybe a boy to run the bellows. Big pile of fuel to make or buy...
Locks were imported in large numbers from England and Germany and the majority of locks were likely imports. The Rev-War interrupted this so its possible that more locks and barrels were made in America during the War than before.
Apparently it was possible to buy finished buttplates and TGs as well. Some even engraved.
Locks were still being imported in vast numbers in the 19th century, usually from England, until they were no longer needed. England was well established as a mass producer of gun parts. Many are marked with the American importer/hardware dealer's name who then resold them.
So we KNOW some locks were made here, some (many) were imported. See W. Gusler's video on carving a Kentucky rifle he discusses this.
So we KNOW barrels were made here, some by gunsmiths, some (many I suspect) by firms that did nothing but rough forge barrels and perhaps bore and grind them as well. Some barrels were imported. See Kindig pg 11 and 23 etc. Read Kauffman's "The Pennsylvania-Kentucky Rifle".
We have NO idea what the ratio of each is. But I suspect that once barrel blanks started being commercially made that routinely forging a barrel in a gunshop was less common.
Were the "rough forged" barrels in the Moravian records welded in shop or purchased as blanks to be reamed and rifled there? There is a good chance the answer is BOTH.
Dan
