doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Whitworth barrels - marked and unmarked

Rich, sorry to be late. I have a few guns with Whitworth Fluid steel , or similar, engraved one the breech. Each has on the underside of the barrels, in front of the flats "Trade, then the sheaf of wheat, Mark" These guns come from Baker Gun and Forging Co., Lefever Arms Co., and Syracuse Arms Co. I have a nagging feeling that I have another American company gun marked that way, but cannot remember at the moment. Oh, yes, it is an L.C. Smith marked the same way.

Did the steel maker or the tube maker press the name of the steel maker into the tube?

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

Daryl, It doesn't even seem to totally correlate with early vs. late. The Red Hook special order (AA level) auctioned last October is SN 27,430 and has the wheat sheaf. My special order (A-B level) is SN 34,492 and does not have it. Curiouser and curiouser.

Thanks Mal-wish we lived closer- Dean Romig has high words of praise for your accumen on doubles, and I hold Dean in high esteem. A friend had a matched pair of Purdey Hammer 12 bores- with 30" Whitworth barrels- and the No. 1 gun, each tube was marked XXX234 right, XXX235 left, the No. 2 gun continued with XXX236 and XXX237. Sort of a confirmation that both guns were "Fraternal Twins" from London Audley House, so to speak. Recall that Lord Ripon shot Hammer Purdey's, from reading Gene Hill's "The Shotgunner's Notebook"--

ellenbr..
I believe Hurlingham was a famous Pigeon shooting club in England, not sure where though, & that they had a list of rules for matches held there..gun weight was probably in there somewhere...
I believe they..& other club rules are in the Pigeon shooting section of Greener's "The Gun & It's Development"
cheers
Franc

Do we have to wait until certain double gun counterfeiters are dead to discuss their work? We discuss certain counterfeit guns but we seem to be afraid to discuss those who contract for such work. I'm below the radar as far as being affected by such people, but those who are affected by them seem to keep it to themselves.

The Hurlingham Club is at Fulham near London, it's still there though I don't think there's any kind of shooting anymore at all.

The "Hurlingham Rules" were used in a lot of places including in the US, and I do beieve part of it did include the allowable weight of the gun.

Destry

Eightbore, do you have a list you'd like to talk about ?

Eightbore, when I saw the first special order Lefever, it occurred to me that someone might have counterfeited the Whitworth markings, but it has been gone over by Buck Hamlin and others. Both of the special order guns are right as rain. All the high grade Purdeys, etc. with Whitworth barrels without the wheat sheaf are confirmation that this is just an odd inconsistency between legitimate Whitworth barrels. Counterfeit high grade American guns is another, and very interesting and important topic. However, the issue here is why some real Whitworth barrels have the familiar mark and some don't.

I have a question regarding the stamp/trademark of a steel maker: what's in a stamp anyway; advertising, guarantee and how do you know some didn't select a rough tube from the wrong pile or use the wrong stamp on a tube? Were there rules and regs for steelmaker stamps besides Krupp?

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse