doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Double Rifles, Paradox Guns & Gauge Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Royal Steel Barrels

Have an L.C.Smith hammer 12 gauge, serial number dates it 1901, would like to know more about the Royal steel barrels. Seems when rated in 1901 they were the lower quality compared to Damascus, laminated and twist, a few years later were advertised as they better quality ?
Any one know who actually manufactured these barrels for Hunter arms Co. in 1901 and was the royal steel actually as good as or Better than the damascus, laminated, twist ??

post this on the LC web site. Doc Drew, who also posts here, will chime in for sure.

good shooting,
John

I don't have the 1901 literature you refer to rating Royal, twist, Damascus, steels, but guess the literature might list the prices of each type, and might not be a "rating". At the time, fluid steel barrels were becoming cheaper to produce than the composite steel barrels. A few years later, the composite steel barrels were becoming more expensive to produce and after WW1, very few were seen on new guns.

In an early 1900's Hunter Arms Co. catalog they offered three different barrels. Royal Steel at $20, Stub Twist at $23 and Good Damascus at $25. It is like Daryl stated, the Royal Steel was easier to produce than the others.
Mostly all the barrels were from Belgium, later on the steel barrels were produced here in the U.S. by a few companies.

Sorry for not paying attention

The �LLH� of Laurent Lochet-Habran has been found on Fox, Baker, Lefever, Crescent, Ithaca (Lewis & Flues with �Smokeless Powder Steel�), NID, Lefever Nitro Special, Lefever M-2 single barrel, and Westernfield Deluxe/Western Arms Long Range, Smith Royal, Armor, London, Crown and Nitro barrels and Hunter Arms Fulton and �Ranger� for Sears. Baker guns may be marked �Nitro Rolled Steel� and Folsom Crescent guns �Fluid Temper Steel�.

1912 F grade with Royal Steel, LLH and ACL (Acier Cockerill Liege)



I haven't tested a Royal steel segment, but it very likely compares to other tubes manufactured by Laurent Lochet-Habran
Walt Snyder documented a report from 1919 that an unknown Ithaca barrel was AISI 1030 with a tensile strength of "about 70,000"
A c.1925 Crescent Fire Arms �Genuine Armory Steel� with �LLH� mark was Rephosphorized AISI 1040 Low Alloy Carbon Steel with a tensile strength of 104,000 psi

104,000 psi tensile strength is similar to 4140 gun barrel steel, but obviously with less corrosion resistance and is likely softer.

Thanks for these posts, appreciate your time and knowledge learned something new.

Richard

Yes- AISI 1040 and AISI 4140 steels both have 40 points of carbon--chrome and moly and nickel compose the 41 of the 4140 analysis. There is tensile strength, but also the yield/bursting strength of barrel steels. My 1930 12 gauge NID 2E has the LLH barrels- but strangely, no stamping of the top of the barrels at the breech, nor anything on the top rib either--

Interesting perhaps, that the first 2 digits as marked on AWS stick electrodes, ie: 6011-- designate the tensile strength of the weld- after stress relieving- 60,000 psi tensile strength-

RWTF