doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Henry action marks

I can't figure out what the 54 and 35 mean on the flats of this gun. They are not a Brazier stamped number nor are they Henry's,as far as my research shows.
If anyone has insight into this please share it with me.
Thanks,Justin

I have owned many Alex Henry rifles and I have never seen "Joseph Brazier Ashes" on the water table of any of them. I don't know what the numbers mean either. Usually they specify bore size, but that usually occurs on the barrels. I to would like to know what is going on here. Is this a rifle somewhere in the .50 caliber range?

LD1, Thanks for the reply. This is not a rifle,but a shotgun. Made in 1877,according to the Henry book at Dickson's. Nothing unusual about the gun other than these #'s. Hammers,damascus barrels,bar action. The gun was originally non-rebounding, converted by an agent of Stantons,and bears the use stamp on the inside of the lockplate. The description in the receipt book states a "patent 146".I beleive this to be a use,not a patent number,and may refer to a Hodges patent concerning the extractor. That's about all I have so far.
So what could these #'s mean?

This is just an educated guess but I think the Brazier stamp indicates that they made up the action and locks and most likely supplied them in-the-white to Henry.
Numbers like this I have seen on many guns, mostly on the barrel flats or between the flats and forend loop. They sometimes have the same numbers stamped on to the action flats.
I have always assumed that this was a variation on the usually single digit or notches cut in component parts to keep the parts of a gun together through the early manufacturing process.
A gun that springs to mind is a Blanch BLE that I have still have which has double digit numbers on flats of both action and barrels.
Although they may have been struck off during finishing, it might be worth having a very careful look over the major components of the gun to see it the same numbers appear elsewhere.
Best of luck in your search!

Is this #5435 and probably means barrels supplier number?

Toby, These #s appear only on the action flats and not on the barrels,so I have to doubt that they're batch #s. The same goes for your observation,Geno, the don't appear on the barrels,so they wouldn't be a barrel's maker's mark.
So please, keep those suggestions and observations coming in,there has to be an answer somewhere.

Justin, what metal do these bbls make from? For instance Whitworth's tubes allways had their own numbers and many gun makers preserved these numbers, but on barrels mostly. #5435 was very early Whithworth's number, if we talk about Whitworth in this case.

Geno,

Are you saying that instead of a trademark, sometimes a tube maker would stamp a number on a barrel? This opens all sorts of doors.

Pete

Guys,the number is on the action flats not the barrels. There are no maker's marks on the barells at all. Please look at the picture,there is a 54 on one side and a 35 on the other.

Pete, this is barrels made from Whitworth's steel in 1908. There is no Whitworth's trade mark, but two numbers only 35857 and 35858. I saw allmost the same barrels made from the same steel, but earlier made and barrels beared one number only.


Whitworth pattented fluid-compressed steel process aprx in 1855, so Henri gun could bear Whitworth's number 5435 in 1877. Just my wild guess.