GregSY; I realize who Mr Ed is. It may though be debatable whether or not he can read, anything other than what he wrote himself that is. I quoted the desirable qualities imparted to steel by the addition of Vanadium as a "Direct" quote from Machineries Handbook, one of the most highly regarded publications in the metal working trade & he then implied I had simply hatched them up in my feeble mind. Copy rights from this book go back to 1914 & it is still to be found in virtually every metalworking & engineering facility around. One does inded wonder "Why" "If" Parker was having such problems with their bolting surfaces wearing, Other makers did not seem to, it took then until 1905 to add a removable wear plate. One could quite easily have been fashioned from 1050-1070 steel & even heat treated to desired hardness (incidently I did ion fact mention this alloy in a previous post even though he said I offered "No Known Suitable Steel). It would have been installed after the bbl brazing had all been accomplished so would have been subject to no further heating to decrease it's temper. I have absolutely no doubt Parker was aware of the existence of medium to med/high carbon steels, so again one wonders "Why" they didn't use it. This certainly would have been a great improvement over "Soft, Low Carbon Steel". Was the Vanadium Steel "Better" for this application, maybe, maybe not, either way it would have been only a matter of degree, It certainly is not the only steel suitable for the purpose, which was all I stated to began with. My advice to Mr Ed is to read Rocketmans excellent comments on this, He is not a Dumb Hillbilly like me, but a professional, his remarks though, back up mine not Ed's.
As to value Mr Ed, I checked out your last Parker book from the local Library, & "Almost" got my Money's Worth. On the other hand I paid $60.00 for "Uncle Dan Lefever, Master Gunmaker" & found it a great bargain.
