doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Bolt treatments

I'm curious what people know about the decorative bolt surface treatments seen on much early American bolt action work that is not the standard engine turned jewel surface. I've seen jeweling on several G&H rifles, but it seems like most other shops were doing different things, usually either an XXX crosshatch style or a random "cobweb" style. How was this treatment done? The crosshatch pattern looks to me similar to the British practice of using abrasive paper to stripe the faces of guns and sometimes action internals, but I don't have a clue about the cobweb surface. I wonder why engine turning wasn't the default treatment and so many shops opted for these more random and almost messy approaches.





Rifles are a non-Hoffman John Dubiel and a later Niedner 250/3000.

John Oberlies did bolts, hammers, triggers, breech blocks and other parts by a method that has been discussed on this subforum before. We have guessed how he did it, but somehow didn't reach a conclusion that we all would agree on. I don't remember what it was called. Chasing??? Scraping???

Fascinating. I'll try to find that information.

Ryan, search "oberlies" and you will get dozens of posts, several of which, maybe many, that discuss this type of decoration. Many posts by Michael, eightbore, and others.

The random cobweb treatment( Jerry Fisher called it snail trail) is done by chucking a pointed stone in the drill press and working an oil-coated piece held by hand against the stone. I glued the round stone into a wooden dowel in order to hold it in the chuck. This is a quick and simple process and makes a bolt operate very smoothly.

Thanks Bill - I found a description of that technique in one of the threads. I look forward to trying it. Need to find the right stones.