Wrought Iron Rifle Barrels

Rather than take the thread on how many shots we can expect from a modern steel barrel off on a different direction, I want to share a bit about wrought iron rifle barrels.

I have forge welded, bored, rifled, and filled several rifle barrels out of wrought iron. I have also engraved signatures on them. Based on that experience I do not find them at all different in hardness from those modern barrels made out of the leaded screw stock (Getz, Rice, etc.). Wrought iron barrels are noticably softer than those modern barrels made out of the more specialized steels (Rayle, Green Mountian, etc). Wrought iron files and cuts very much like mild steel (1010). It does have silicone inclusions and depending on how well refined it is (more refinded means smaller inclusions) they can cause the iron to load up a file more quickly than steel does. Chalking the file helps with that problem.

I have only know of one wrought iron barrel in modern times to wear to the point where it began to through larger groups. It was shot a bunch with PRB and the ball and patch combo was on he side of "thick patch and small ball" as I personally believe many hunting rifles were in the flint period.

When the groups opened up to about 2 inches at 50 yards we unbreeched the rifle and found that the rifling was very slick but had a sort of rounded over look to the corners of the lands. We cast a freshening slug and cut both the lands and groves about .002". Accuracy was completely restored.

The only time freshening a barrel needs to remove more than a few thousandths is when there has been neglect and rust pitting. No doubt there were cases on neglect in the period especially in cases were a rifle was fired, reloaded and hung on the wall until the next hunt without cleaning.

I also want to share an article I wrote about 18th-century iron and steel. There are lots of myths about the colonial iron industry and how the different types of iron were made and used. To learn more follow this link:
Web Article on 18th-century iron and steel

Gary

It's my understanding that true wrought iron is very hard to come by today. Most things sold as "wrought iron" are really mild steel.

Are you making your barrels from true wrought iron or mild steel?

Excellent article about iron and steel making. :thumbsup:

Since steel barrels contain lead - lead makes maching much easyer - we should never shoot lead conicals because lead against isnt good. Many many years ago when I worked in a Machine shop in Vermont I was taught that lead will not run in lead, Neaver ever use leaded steel with babbit bearings. We made gear cutting machinery and the shafts ran in babbit bearings, low and behold a just out of school engineer orderd leaded steel for the shafts of the gear cutting machines, they siezed up in minutes.
So now I am drawing a conclusion that lead conicals will lead up a barrel.
How wrong am I ?

Gary,
Is there any noticeable weight difference between modern barrels (Rice Getz) and a wrought iron barrel. If both are the same length and caliber.
Thanks for the article.

One opinion that keeps surfacing is that abuse & neglect are the biggest factors in the life of a barrel. I own barrels that have been shooting matches for 30+ years & still produce good groups. On the other hand I've had barrels in the shop that were a year or two old & were in bad shape. So proper cleaning & oiling & the use of a muzzle bushing seem to be the important factors.

The comparison of soft iron to 12L14 is interesting. A few years ago I did some work on an original Soddy, TN gun. Definately soft as leaded steel.

Wrought iron is still available from England. It will cost you far more for the shipping than the iron itself.As far as I know there is no commerical american manufacture of true wrought iron left.

Claude said:

It's my understanding that true wrought iron is very hard to come by today.

Click to expand...

This is true. I was told by a blacksmith that Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia buys up all they can locate on a regular basis.

i helped make a lot of rifled musket barrels for nssa shooters out of 12L14 and they never had a leading problem.

In my reading somewhere, could have been in Foxfire perhaps, they said that the folks had a special place that they would go to find the ore which was either lacking in or void of anything in the iron. They were using it for barrel making and I believe they sought this iron out because it was more easily turned into wrought iron for this use.

rabbit03

Hey Gary,
Thank you for the information on early manufacture of iron and steel.
Old Ford

Claude said:

It's my understanding that true wrought iron is very hard to come by today. Most things sold as "wrought iron" are really mild steel.

Click to expand...

So, what sources are there for original wrought iron?

I am no longer working in the Colonial Williamsburg Gunshop but they are using wrought iron for their barrels and lock parts. They have a fairly good stockpile and, with their primary job being talking to guests, don't make that many barrels a year.

In the mid-1960s Wallace Gusler and I welded some barrels out of mild steel but wrought iron is much easier to weld. In mild steel there is not much difference between the welding heat and where the steel burns. Wrought iron, with its lower carbon content, does not burn as easily.

One often overlooked source of real wroung iron is the scrap from replacing old iron highway bridges. A lot of the sizes are hard to deal with but most early 20th century bridges used a lot of wrought iron because it was more rust resistant than mild steel. Old boilers are also wrought iron.

Gary

Bald Mtn Man said:

Claude said:

It's my understanding that true wrought iron is very hard to come by today. Most things sold as "wrought iron" are really mild steel.

Click to expand...

So, what sources are there for original wrought iron?

Click to expand...

Old wagon wheel rims and other parts, lots of old bridges that are now being de-constructed, anchor chains, and so on...
I've got a stash of about 200 lbs and know others with a ton or so - it's not that hard to find if you know what to look for although where you live can make a difference...

Gary with respect I know that the "Common knowledge" is that WI has little to no carbon but that isn't always true - I've had some pieces with up to about 6 points of carbon - about the same as the low end of high carbon steel, but it was wrought iron not steel (grain structure is completely different as you know). The main difference between WI and steel is really in the method of HOW it was made - the higher silicates in WI generally make it more rust resistant and due to the method of making WI it has that "stringy/spaghetti" grain structure as shown on Gary's link, which is one of the methods for deciding what is WI. Old rusted WI will show that grain structure on the outside.
As Gary alluded to it can be tough on tools because of the silicates - I tend to wear out files faster working with the poorer grades of WI than when using mild steel.
Another period iron is puddle iron - one method for making it was to take WI and refine it by remelting and recasting similar to the way in which cast (aka crucible) steel as described on Gary's link. This is today often called pure iron, which is now available in the states form The Wagner Companies - not cheap but wonderful stuff to forge, moves like hot butter under the hammer....

Also there are modern smiths, mostly bladesmiths, now making their own iron and steel, Rick Furrer, Steve Champaign, and Jon Loose are just a few I know of currently involved....

The Rockbridge Bloomery is an online source for information on building and using your own bloomery. It can be a simple operation of one or two people(the more the better). Their bloomeries average about 20-40 lb blooms per session. They're labor intensive but if you want the real deal you can make your own like our ancestors did. Wouldn't it be great to make your own WI furniture from scratch. The more daring can even try barrels. It's an art that should not be lost. Like making your own long gun. Billy

streetsniper, that's a great resource. Right there in Lexington...
http://iron.wlu.edu/

Thanks!

Have any of you guys ever sent your barrel out, and had it chrome lined? I've often wondered if hard chrome lining a barrel would be the answer to all these rust damage barrels out there. I'm not stating using chrome to repair a damaged barrel but chroming a new barrel before any rust damage could happen. I've always thought that it would be nice to have chrome lined barrels new right from factory production guns. Any thought on this?

I have an old knife that was forged from wrought iron or so I was told that what its made from

" I've always thought that it would be nice to have chrome lined barrels new right from factory production guns. Any thought on this?"

I really don't see it to be required it does not take a lot of care or time to clean and protect a ML barrel with one of several methods. Learning the simle routine to take care of a ML barrel has just been part of the overall experience from my viewpoint, but that is just my thought on the subject.

I don't recall which company at one time sold chrome plated bores on their rifle but I know at least one of them did.

I don't know that I would pay any extra for a gun with a chrome lined bore. As tg pointed out taking care of a plain steel bore isn't really difficult and chrome plating has been known to chip and peal if it isn't applied correctly.