I suppose one could interpolate manufacturing time for Damascus barrels from Pete M's dvd on Damascus barrel making in Belgium.
Daryl,
I did use Pete's movie for information. Mostly, to make sure that the barrel smiths didn't have some amazing ability to work fast. They were certainly good at their work. But, the amount of work that they were able to accomplish in each forging session at the anvil was pretty much standard fair for blacksmithing.
Another time consuming thing that any blacksmith must allow for, is the time required to bring the steel to forging heat. It just takes a certain amount of time to reheat the metal in the forge after each session of hammering on the anvil. I made a calculation for the average amount of reheating time required, based on my experience with the type of forge being used in the movie, the tools that the smiths were using and the mass of the barrel being welded in the movie. This reheating time calculation, I multiplied by the number of heats that I calculated would be required to weld a barrel tube.
I would expect that for efficiency, work would be carried out on more than one tube at a time
Tom,
I agree with you!! Though it didn't show it in the movie, I expect that the smiths worked on more than one barrel at a time.
Did anyone else do the math on the 2,000 barrel makers producing 600,000 barrels in a year?
I expect that the barrel smiths worked at least 12 hour days (probably more like 14 to 16). They probably also worked six day weeks.
12 hours x 6 days = 72 hours
72 hours x 52 weeks = 3,744 hours
3,744 hours x 2,000 men = 7,488,000 man hours
7,488,000 man hours divided by 600,000 barrels = 12.48 hours per barrel
