Larry, I don't think your quote is crystal clear on who made the tubes. Most gunmakers finished up tubes supplied by others. Krupp, Whitworth , etc could go through several hands.
Me thinks Mr. Hallquist is spot on here and that for the most part a weapons maker received either a rough bored tube or a tube closer to the final state and that the go-between betwixt the drop forge hammer along with drill and grinding wheel and the weapons maker was the tube knitter, who was an outsource worker. Larger concerns like Pieper & Sauer more than likely had all under one umbrella but this was not the norm.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
Raimey, my point was simply that gunmakers often advertised the SOURCE of their steel (like Whitworth, for example), but that does not mean that Whitworth made the barrels. As you pointed out previously, Krupp steel was made into Krupp barrels elsewhere. Holtzer did make artillery tubes (as did Krupp). I know you're dubious about V-C and barrels, but they go to great length in their 1922 catalog (several pages) to discuss the quality of the steel, the process of assembling the barrels (demi-bloc/chopper lump etc). Then there's the fact that they are currently in the barrel-making business. The odd "Metro" barrels, fitted onto the end of shotguns to reduce noise in situations where hunting is legal but the cops might show up if someone reports gunfire, were marketed by Hastings but made by V-C. At what point V-C entered the picture in 1922 may not be clear, but I think what is clear is that Holtzer wasn't likely in the business of going beyond rough tubes at the most, and possibly not even that, any more than Krupp was.
