From what I've read and gleaned I think this to be correct in describing the manufacture of "rough bored barrels" in Belgium circa 1905:
"In the manufacture of steel barrels Bessemer-Cockerill steel, Siemens-Martin steel of British and Belgian manufacture, and German steel are used. The bars after begin forged pass through a series of mechanical operations which they undergo in the following order: ---Drilling of the hole; re-boring or enlarging of the hole; exterior turning; verifying of thickness and of the bore and modification to required measurements and; exterior planning and shaping – especially for hexagonal and octagonal barrels---; polishing of the interior of the barrel with a special too, and exterior polishing and shaping.
Another mode of manufacturing steel barrels, which is, however, very little practiced, is that of taking bars of soft steel of 45 millimetres in diameter and 30 centimetres in length, which are bored and then rolled out on a mandrel until the required length is attained.
It is difficult to obtain trustworthy information respecting the boring of steel barrels by machinery, the greatest secrecy being observed by the manufactures…..”
The 2nd method as ChuckH noted in another thread, is centered around the “gun moulds” as found in the tariff lists as the end product surely meets the "forged" definition.
http://books.google.com/books?id=ErkOAQA...ers&f=false The stock steel left the steel manufacturing facility in bar form and then experienced a set of rollers the formed the bar to a desired form closer to what a tube would be. It was annealed and/or oil quenched or tempered. I think too that the chamber end was oil tempered a bit more.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
