It is interesting to learn obscure facts about the gun trade from gunmakers who were there during the classic period of gunmaking in the UK, and one of them was the late Jack Rowe who entered the trade just after WWII as a lad. Others of the time of Jack Rowe such as Malcolm Cruxton and Peter Dyson are still plying their skills. Peter is approaching 90 years old. I think that Malcolm and I are about the same age 83.
The obscure facts of how some parts of double barrel shotguns were made and from where the materials came from to make them was commented upon by Jack Rowe during a conversation I had with him in 1998. We were discussing how that some double barrel shotgun trigger guards would eventually turn a plum color, no matter how you blacked them. Jack explained the reason of this. He said that the lads in the gun trade such as him would sweep the floors of the gun making shops gathering the iron and steel filing along with the dirt and grime and collect all this iron/steel/dirt mess into a bucket or barrel. Later the junk man would come by and purchase the barrel or iron/steel/dirt filings and the money the shop received was beer money for the shop workers. The "bucket of grime" was used as the basis for melting and forging then producing strips/bars of "steel" from which trigger guards and other parts were made. Not all guns trigger guards were made of this junk steel but the less expensive ones were.
Wally;
It just may be that your hammers originated from the filings swept up from the floor of the shop and its structure can never be any better than what it is now.
Stephen Howell
Last edited by bushveld; 05/14/25 10:47 PM.
