Many will ask what inducement have the welders to take this extra trouble? Gain. The cost of Damascus is 7-1/2_d._ per pound, and the iron they use for this purpose is only 1-1/4_d._ A pair of barrels take 14 lbs. of iron; say 6 lbs. of this is Damascus plate, costing 3_s._ 9_d._; 8 lbs. is common, amounting to 10_d._ instead of 5_s._, or a saving of 4_s._ 2_d._ a pair. A splendid profit if you order one hundred. The borer charges less, the iron is softer, the filer has less, and all items clubbed amount to something. The facility with which welders can do this is wonderful; it clearly establishes their ability, and proves their claim to be considered the cleverest _blacksmiths_ on the face of the earth. It is not only the best descriptions of iron they plate with: twopenny skelp is more in use than any. It is now rare to meet with _painted_ barrels: all are _genuine twist barrels_, _warranted_; for they are mostly all plated, even down to the gun costing but fourteen shillings, wholesale price.
This is a subject of serious importance; one which the gun-makers, both metropolitan and provincial, should resolutely condemn; for safety as well as goodness of shooting cannot be secured in perfection with any barrels so constructed. I have met with plated barrels in guns which cost the purchaser thirty-five guineas, and I have detected them in some of the first makers’ guns; for the _perfection_ with which the fraud is accomplished is wonderful, and few can detect it who are not strictly up to “the dodge.” The application of a portion of sulphuric acid into the tube at the breech end of the barrel, is the best way of showing the fraud; for, in most cases, it is all bored out at the thin portion of the muzzle, and the application there would, under these circumstances, be no test.
I have frequently been applied to by many masters in the trade for advice in the recommendation of a barrel-maker. It is at all times an invidious task to act as a selector for individuals, and to give praise to one man over another; more especially where the merits of workmen approximate near to each other. But in barrel-making, a man, to be a master of his trade, should not only be a good workman, breeching and filing well, but should possess a good eye in putting barrels together (for here everything depends upon the eye) and finishing them highly: these are only a portion of the abilities a barrel-maker should possess. Several of the London barrel-makers are exceedingly good workmen, for I have tried them all; but only converse with them, and you find the technicalities of the work is all they can discourse upon: the iron, the vital principle, is Greek to them; they know nothing about it, and care less. How can these men be guides in the right direction? They may have seen barrels welded; but, if so, it is only a matter of chance: even in Birmingham, where this can be seen daily, nineteen out of twenty know nothing theoretically. You will frequently hear them heaping _anathemas_ on a hard barrel, when floating it, and wishing the man who invented steel barrels “_in the shades below_.” Ask these men’s opinions, and if they expect to have the job of filing the barrels, they will surely recommend you soft iron, stub-twist, or charcoal-iron.