Steel Furniture

[Dude]

I thought brass was a step up from steel, but now I don't know.

Was steel furniture considered high end for the more expensive guns?

 

[Phil Coffins]

There’s advantages to brass both in function and manufacturing. Each has its place.

 

[Dude]

I'd always thought brass was the higher-end stuff, but now realize that wasn't based on any data.

Phil - in function, do you say that because it doesn't rust?

I like both these days, when in the past I liked brass best. I'm just curious which was considered high end.

 

[necchi]

Was steel furniture considered high end for the more expensive guns?

Not really. A a quality rifle had more to do with the operative components of lock, trigger and barrel and overall fitment of those parts to the wood and the grade of wood involved.
It wasn't really about the use of brass or steel for the "furniture" of the stock as far as "value". Brass could be worked and fitted in half the time as steel but the real "quality" came from the purity of those castings for those parts.

 

[DuncNZ]

It depends where and when the rifle was made , Steel was hard to find in some areas back in the day and it was expensive , Certainly it would be more difficult to cast and engrave than brass , that is why some guns were made with no butt plate or a leather or horn one . Most military firearms used steel furniture . Expensive guns usually used whatever the customer wanted and could afford .

 

[Dude]

Expensive guns usually used whatever the customer wanted and could afford .

Were steel parts more expensive than brass?

 

[Brokennock]

Commerce laws in Colonial America did not allow for Colonial smiths to make their own iron (now steel) furniture. Iron and "steel" was shipped as raw materials to England where it was turned into finished products and sold back to the colonists.
This combined with brass being easier to work with are probably the reason more guns made in America at the time were outfitted with brass.

 

[Dude]

That's a very interesting bit of history, Brokennock. Thank you for that!