doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com "New manufactured" Lefever project

Ken,
From what I gather, 8620 is an excellent choice, probably not appreciated by most. It can be core hardened up to 135 ksi (excellent strength) and casehardened together with that core hardening. So, core strength can be the same as a 4000 series steel reciever and colored per vintage guns. Also, the high chromium and nickel content give it higher corrosion resistance than traditional vintage mild steel recievers.

Thanks for the info Chuck. It will help other realize that we are very serious about using only the finest steels available for each part. Ken

PeteM,
You Sir have made my day. I was sure I had read about this process somewhere. I actually tried something back in the early 90's with cold rolled steel sheets. By brushing patterns on with a light grease, then spraying on a strong degreaser containing lye, I was able to produce erratic patterns that resembled damascus steel after allowing enough time for the steel to react with the lye. Once cleaned and oiled it looked pretty good. I would have hoped to perfect the process, but a divorce and loss of everything I owned back then made me froget about the idea. I will start experimenting again.

Bill

Goodness Bill,
A stoke, divorce and loss of everything you own. Wew. Good you are still kicking and trying to figure out how to make damascus out of cold steel.
More power to ya. Hi on!
Best, Jake

Jakearoo, The stroke was caused by two holes in the Atrial septum in my heart allowing a piece of plaque no larger than a pinhead to go straight to my brain. Two weeks after returning to work from the stroke, I had to have open heart surgery to repair the birth defects. While they were in there, the surgeon performed six coronary artery bypasees just to avoid as many future problems as possible. It took me seven weeks to get back to work after that. I dont want to make damascus out of steel, just want to duplicate the look of fine damascus. I think it can be done with some experimentation.

Bill

This seems like a great idea, and I do like Lefevers.

Whoever manages this project will have his hands full. Coordinating multiple craftsman and maintaining the quality control will be a real task. The end product should be worth all the efforts.

Yea, but look at that team he's putting together!!!
All the best

I spoke with the guys over at alpha machining about a barrel project for a gun my brother and I are designing. The guy want lots of money for tooling for a specific barrel, approx $50,000 to $100,000. There are not a lot of barrel options out there for low volume guns. If anybody has an idea on how to make good barrels cheap please let me know.

Without knowing the volume of barrels this project will require, you might want to talk to Ed Rayl who custom makes barrels currently for muzzleloading firearms. These would just be the tubes properly dimensioned on the interior. He currently works in chrome moly for his rifle barrels. Last rifle barrel I got cost a little less than three hundred dollars which included a lot of grinding to give it the octagonal swamped exterior which the shotgun would not require.

I previously posted that 1" seems to be the standard for XX Lefever frames because of the response I received on the "Frame size" thread on the old Lefever forum. On rereading the thread, I find that more than one pin separation measurement for the XX frame was 1 1/16". Obviously, 1 1/16 is a dimension that will cover 20 to 12 with the possibility to make an acceptable 28 gauge. I think the 1" pin separation is also acceptable for 28 to 12 with the 12 being marginal. If the search is for the "Lefever Standard" for XX frames, I think it is a tossup between the 1" and the 1 1/16", with the 1 1/16" being easier to work with for the three larger gauges. Because of the difficulty of finding barrel suppliers at the proper price point, I would recommend that the builders standardize pin center placement since that is one dimension that cannot be "adjusted" once the unfinished barrel sets reach our shores. If customers want a slim waisted 28 gauge, the breech balls can be trimmed on a heavier receiver, but metal cannot be easily added to make a 12 gauge on a too small receiver. In my opinion, a trim, attractive 28 gauge can be made on a receiver with a 1 1/16" pin separation if the breech balls are trimmed to be in proper proportion. If it is found that a light 12 cannot be constucted on a receiver with a 1" pin separation, (which I think it can be) standardization at a 1 1/16" pin separation would be acceptable for use in all gauges from 12 to 28 gauge. Bill Murphy