Swamping a barrel, by hand.

[Chocktaw Brave]

I was working on fitting my breech plug this weekend, it was a lot of work, and I still have to draw file the entire barrel.
It got me to thinking how much work it would be to swamp a barrel using only hand tools. Has anyone here done this?
Oh, here’s a picture of my barrel work so far.

[45-110]

I have done 3 in years past, you will get popeye arms. It takes exceptional sharp quality files to minimize the labor. But it surely can be done, take and write down the measurements of each flat as your file them down so they are all same distance from bore.
kw

[rich pierce]

With an angle grinder it oughta go pretty quickly. If it’s an Ed Rayl barrel it should take 20 hours of filing if you want to go that route.

Whenever I want to really change the profile of a piece of stock I use hacksaw and follow with files. Make a plan for the dimensions at every inch. In this case I’d mount 2 coarse blades in the saw. Mark the waist and there take a certain number of hacksaw strokes crossways on top, side, and bottom flats. Say maybe 8 with perfectly repeatable strokes. As you move from the waist toward muzzle, 7 strokes, then 6 and so on. Very tedious work. Leave a quarter inch between saw cuts. Now do the other 4 flats with your saw cuts halfway between the cuts on the other 4 sides because you always want to be cutting the full width of the flat.

4 hours later start filing till the cuts are gone. Others may approach differently but no way I’d just start filing.

Expect irregularities. All barrels on American guns with forged barrels show irregularities.

[Bob Roller]

70 years ago I hand filed a pistol barrel to octagon from round.My old friend the late Marshal Ralph Hooker did the same thing for a long rifle barrel.Today,knowing much more about files I would start  with a Vixen which are files used in auto body repair or once were.They have big semi circular cutting edges and can be used aggressively but they cut fast so caution is a must.
  The last thing I did to a barrel was to make a chambered breech plug for a one inch octagon barrel but I have lathes and a milling machine.
The angle grinder might work and eye protection is a MUST and maybe some practice on a plain round bar to get the "feel" of that tool is a help as well.
Bob Roller

[Dennis Glazener]

If I were you about as far as I am concerned I would stop st just thinking about it
Dennis

[Chocktaw Brave]

Oh yea, trust me I have no desire to go that far. Just the work on the breach plug has my right shoulder acting up. 
Besides, this is going to be a straight barrel.

[gusd]

Did one in the late 70's Last one for me!!
Gus

[smart dog]

Hi,
I've done one rifle and several pistol barrels.  I essentially use Rich's strategy except I file narrow bands of the dimensions I want at every 4 inches and then use a stationary belt sander to grind the barrel between bands until they are gone.  Then I use a long flat coarse file to draw file the barrel and remove most of the rippling.  It works fine but a rifle barrel takes a few days to file and then clean up.  I made the mistake of using a Green Mountain barrel for one project.  I will never again try to swamp one of those made from 1137 steel.

dave 

[DavidC]

Seems like Andy Dufresne wants to make longrifles instead of digging tunnels.

[borderdogs]

Isn't it easier to buy a swamped barrel?...............
Rob

[smart dog]

Hi,
Of course it is easier to use commercially swamped barrels except when no one makes what you want and you have to wait months maybe years for a custom barrel.

dave

[xx54]

Several years ago I hand swamped a 15/16" 40 caliber Douglas. I put a pretty good swamp in it. I started out by using an in-mill bit and would cut in every 3 inches down the barrel, figuring out how deep I needed to go. Then I would cut completely around the barrel dotting every flat as I went toward the muzzle. Then using a large u shaped cut body file, I cut each flat down and finally using sanding sticks with different grits of paper, I cleaned each flat up. I noticed the barrel warped on me and that is the last one that I have ever tried to do. No more for me.

[borderdogs]

Right, I understand that if its not available or if its something you want to try it seems to me an advanced project. I hand tapered an octagonal barrel about an 1/16th of an inch over 36" and at least to me it was more involved than I thought it would be.
Rob

[DavidC]

This is a matter of what is your time worth. I can make a g code program for a cnc lathe for a specific taper in less than an hour. Any lathe that can fit the barrel between centers or with a section in a milled chuck or octagonal collet could Machine it in less than 40 minutes.

Make buddies with small machine shop owners and this is the stuff we get into after hours.

[bob in the woods]

I did one around 25 years ago. I used a mix of course files and scrapers.  The scrapers actually worked pretty well. I used a couple of old hand plane blades .  If I remember correctly, it took me about 3 or 4 days, but I'd stop  and do something else when I got tired. It was a Douglas .45 with a one in 66 twist according to my notes. The material was actually pretty soft.  Lack of funds dictated a lot of what I did back then 

[Mike payne]

A few years ago I hand swamped a 1" old Douglas barrel I had laying around it was a lot of work. I marked out the waist area filed it first then tapered it out.

[thecapgunkid]

I did it once.  Once

[Birddog6]

I Did a pistol barrel for a guy one time.  I would not do a whole barrel.

Kinda like the time I had a guy engrave the whole top flat of a Jaeger barrel for me. He did
it & he said "I hope you love this, cause I will NEVER do another one !" 

[James Wilson Everett]

Guys,

I have done this numerous times, using a large angle grinder, really big & coarse files and a barrel bore centering tool.  Here is a topic showing the process:

Wrought Iron Barrel Re-Use  https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=31614.msg303333#msg303333

Here is a topic showing the really necessary tool for swamping a barrel without ruining it:

Centering the Bore in a Barrel  https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=21868.0

Jim

[Marcruger]

There are men here who are much braver, more resourceful and determined than I will ever be.  My hat’s off to you who hand swamp steel. Wow.  God bless, Marc

[Bob Gerard]

When I was about 24 yo I had a lot more energy than now! I  hand-filed a full octagon barrel (14" long) into a Octagon-to-round barrel with a slight flare at the muzzle and with a few copper inlays for a Wheellock pistol  I was building.
I won't be doing that any more   :'(

[Robin Henderson]

I did it a long time ago as swamped barrels were hard to get back then. It was only 26" long and I have no desire to do it again. I ended up using it on a plain short-stocked cherry hunting gun.

[Chocktaw Brave]

Those are some good ideas, and nice work on the rifle & pistol. If, and that’s if, I ever try one it will probably be a pistol barrel first to get a feel for it. I’m guessing a rifle would take four to five times longer, just due to size.

[DavidC]

The purpose is to reduce weight.

If done by hand the most of the weight won't be coming off the gun.

[bluenoser]

Well, speaking for myself - that wouldn't be a bad thing