I've heard nothing of the use of trip hammers (machine made) in barrel making factories to increase efficiency.
Joe,
W.W. Greener mentions in "The Gun and Its Development", that powered machinery was used in Birmingham for damascus barrel work. He states that tilt-hammers were used for forging. I cannot imagine that there were no Belgian smiths using trip-hammers.
Has anyone considered how many of the barrels were pistol?
Raimey,
I have not seen a word written about the forging of tubes specifically for pistol barrels. Again in "The Gun and Its Development", Greener wrote one sentence about octagon barrels being forged on a properly shaped anvil and rifle barrels being welded on smaller mandrels. Pistol barrel forging would be virtually the same as forging of a rifle barrel. I would be very interested in knowing of any other documentation concerning the forging of rifle and pistol barrels.
Not having found much information on the subject, I have my own speculations on the source of pistol barrels. In short; I believe they were forged from tubes that were welded for shotgun barrels. Certainly there were a number of shotgun tube forgings that had a flaw in them, making them unsuitable for producing a long barrel. Some portion of these tubes would have been sound enough to re-forge into shorter barrels.
My own work with forging damascus pistol barrels, convinces me that forging a large bore tube down to a smaller caliber can easily be done. The entire subject of forging small bore tubes, including small gauge shotgun tubes, is something that I am keenly interested in. Lacking information, I have my own wild speculation about the process, but no sound historical information. Rather than hijack Drew's thread, I would entertain a separate discussion on this topic.
