Mr. Brown:
I understand you point and possibly at some juncture with supporting evidence like a ledger, names of tube makers, etc. I could stomach that V-C made all their own tubes but even though they now make everything inhouse, much like Beretta now who sourced prior to WWII, it doesn't support that they did not source their tubes inland or abroad. I'm sure Holtzer was a staple for bar stock, but was every V-C fitted with Holtzer steel tubes or were some sourced? You have Rigby wearing German steel( F. Asoethwer/Asthöwer/Asthowever/Ashtrömer( Gussstahlwerkes Fritz Asthöwer & Co. ) & Company(Annen Steel Works), Crucible Cast steel works, Annen, Westphalia or later Krupp Steel Works ) and I assume others also sourced Germany pre-WWI. It was at this point in time that sourcing lines dried up and just like the makers in the U.S. of A. inland sources became the staple. For sure more info has to be obtained here. But I'm very confident, in fact almost so that you could take it to the bank unless someone else provides any info otherwise, that Whitworth and Heinrich Ehrhardt, with their novel steel cavity patents for hollow steel cylinders, did peddle tubes in the rough. I'd say almost all other steel concerns peddled bar steel to the tube maker who wailed on the bar stock to transform it into the tube state.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
Raimey, if you had the 1922 catalog, you would know that not all V-C's were tubed with Holtzer. (You can get it from Cornell Publications.) They refer in specific to 4 different qualities of steel used in their better guns. Lowest is acier diamant. The next 3 are all different qualities of Holtzer steel. And they use less expensive steel in their lower grade guns. The only steel specifically identified by source is Holtzer. Otherwise, you have the usual stuff you find on French guns: "acier de surete"; "acier de qualite special"; "acier au creuset comprime"; etc.
I know you look on catalogs as basically so much advertising, but I find the V-C catalogs to go out of their way when it comes to honesty. For example, in 1999, V-C listed two sxs models in its catalog. But even though those guns are marked "Verney-Carron", the catalog copy makes it quite clear that they are made for V-C "in the European Union". (The less expensive looks Spanish to me; the more expensive looks very Merkel-ish.) So no attempt to hide the outside origin of those guns--while giving them the same guarantee as those made by V-C.
