doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Thoughts on bore hones...

Why hone to the level of the pits, light pitting in damascus guns should be left as is.

to sell the gun for more $ by enhancing it's internal appearance?
shotgun boys are wild about shiny like mirror bores.

I'll agree with Geo. Newbern that minor pitting is mostly cosmetic and probably best left alone. I think that once the source of the corrosion has been scrubbed out and kept protected with a good gun oil, it will not be like a cancer silently eating away at the metal. I understand that pressures will stress a pitted area more than the same area honed smooth, but reduced in thickness. But when it gets that iffy, it may be more prudent to retire the gun and save eyes and fingers. Geo. mentions worrying about slick shiny Damascus. I find it surprising how often many of these old barrels, that I would bet the farm never saw a hone, clean up to mirror finish or maybe no worse than small areas of minor frosting. I've bought 2 Damascus Baker barrels and a Meriden Damascus gun in the last two weeks. I was all but sure that all of them would have at least minor pitting, but all three were almost perfect with no more than a brass brush and solvent soaked patches. Steel that is mirror polished in the beginning has so much less surface area, microscopically speaking, than unpolished steel and it remains shiney with minimal care and protection. Also, study the bores of guns being sold by the guy who likes to "freshen" the appearance of junkers, and you'll soon be able to tell which barrels have been honed or cleaned up with emory on a dowel rod. How severely, of course, would require measuring.

I think you may be missing the point here guys?
Measure the barrel wall thickness and see if the tubes will take the necessary amount of 'reworking'.
Estimate or measure if possible, the depth of the pitting before getting yourself into deep water.
If the tubes have sufficient wall thickness, you could 'spill bore' them and then hone and polish using simple workshop tools.
Remember, Victorian gunsmiths did not have sophisticated machinery, but they had copius amounts of cheap labour time and skill.
'Make haste, slowly'.

This thread touched a tender button. Do yourself a favor and send the barrels to Briley. They have sophisticated machine tools to do it right and absolutely same size along the length of the bores. I learned my lesson when I sent a set of valuable classic American SxS barrels to a certain gunsmith who's name is often mentioned here. I'd done a lot of prework with him and we agreed on the details of the honing. After MUCH LONGER than he quoted, numerous phone calls that were not returned, false promises of new dates, more phone calls, etc. - the barrels were returned and the bore gauge showed they were like an Anaconda that had swallowed a couple of meals in succession. I'm exaggerating here to make my point, but they had variable dimensions, opened up and became smaller randomly by 3-4 thou along their lengths. That may not bother you but it did me. Barrel wall was okay but on the low side.

I do not mean to disparage anyone. I'm sure there are several well qualified gunsmiths who can do it right. The guy I picked was not one of them. Want to take a chance on someone? Go to it. However, at $150.00 per tube by Briley you can be assured you're dealing with a company that has Sunnen hones and qualified operators, also assets to correct problems due to human error and/or reimburse you if something goes wrong. Silvers

Most of the pitting we incur on early guns came about after the introduction of smokeless, prior to the understsnding of corrosive primers. When BP only was in use water cleaning was standard practise & this also removed the corrosive primer salts. It is a mistake I think to say these early guns were pitted by the use of Black Powder. Certainly BP residue (fouling) will attract moisture & a mild form of sulfuric acid produced, but this would not be found on any well kept gun. Guns which were fired & then put away without a through cleaning were not common in the BP era. Smokeless Changed all that, as many folks thought that cleaning was now just a useless chore.