English Shotgun

[mooncoon]

I think that we forget how much skill and plain hard work went into making these things. I've read that filers would sweep up and the filings would be placed on a plate, put in a forge, and welded into bars from which trigger guards, buttplates and other fittings would be forged. Saturday night beer money was earned this way.
It took quite a while for Bessemer process steel making to be perfected. Apparently the steel plate used in the Titanic contributed to the disaster. It was brittle, and the gash opened up more than if the ship had been made with iron plate.

In my foggy memory, WW Greener made the statement that it took 14 or 18 lbs of steel to make one 4 lb set of barrels. That is a lot of filing and grinding

Swedish steel was highly desired because its ore included about 4% managanese compared to I presume little if any in British iron ore. The phosphorous problem was solved in the mid 1870s by an american through the use of a lining in the large crucibles used to contain molten iron during the Bessemer process. Bessermer's process was adopted almost universay within a year or so and resulted in the price of steel being dropped to about 10% of its pre Bessemer price

cheers mooncoon