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Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 1,826 Likes: 12
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 1,826 Likes: 12 |
We still live in the USA ? Can't anyone use dollars ? I mean, the British didn't beat us and we don't use the gbp over here. Just wondering what happened.
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 6,993 Likes: 402
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 6,993 Likes: 402 |
We still live in the USA ? Can't anyone use dollars ? I mean, the British didn't beat us and we don't use the gbp over here. Just wondering what happened. Funny folks those British, when they quote a job they quote it in the currency that they use. The audacity of it all..... Google will provide a multitude of links to sites that can quote the current exchange rates. At today's mid market rates it coverts to $48,305.
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 7,722 Likes: 480
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 7,722 Likes: 480 |
I like competition but there are other considerations. Have a barrel “made” by the original maker and the value is better than having it “made” by another. Ironic thing is same craftsman might make both. Using outside workers has been going on for a hundred years. I don’t know if most makers are even building enough guns to keep specialists like barrel maker employed. So they fall back to a long held tradition of using outsourcing as a solution. H&H are getting a premium for their name and the enhance resale value that represents. While expensive, I think new barrels will continue to be made by those with deep enough pockets. It is just out of my price range. For that matter I suspect a nice engraving job would be as well and that always has been outsourced. Norms of the trade.
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 2,271 Likes: 521
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 2,271 Likes: 521 |
Last I heard…H&H, Purdey, and others make their own barrels in house. Pretty much always have. A barrel blank is not a barrel. They get those from whomever. The actual making of the barrel is done entirely in house. Other provincial makers almost certainly outsource the barrel work unless they themselves specialized (apprenticed) in barrel making before striking it out on their own.
My theory for the absurd cost of having new barrels made by one of these makers is this…..price the work so high that nobody will want to have it done, that way most of the effort stays will fulfilling new gun orders.
If someone sent a late 1890’s or early 1900’s H&H Royal back to the factory and spent 30k GBP to have a new set of barrels made for the gun…the gun would not magically be worth 30k+ GBP. It would now be a very nice vintage gun with very expensive factory replacement barrels….and the entire gun maybe worth 10 to 15k USD….maybe 20k USD to an idiotic buyer who just had to have it (those guys are out there).
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2 members like this:
Stanton Hillis, John Roberts |
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Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 6,487 Likes: 394
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 6,487 Likes: 394 |
My theory for the absurd cost of having new barrels made by one of these makers is this…..price the work so high that nobody will want to have it done, that way most of the effort stays will fulfilling new gun orders. (those guys are out there). That's certainly a tried and tested method of avoiding work/jobs that you don't want to do while at the same time, not refusing the job. You may be on to something.
The world cries out for such: he is needed & needed badly- the man who can carry a message to Garcia
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 6,993 Likes: 402
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 6,993 Likes: 402 |
Last I heard…H&H, Purdey, and others make their own barrels in house. Pretty much always have. A barrel blank is not a barrel. They get those from whomever. The actual making of the barrel is done entirely in house. Other provincial makers almost certainly outsource the barrel work unless they themselves specialized (apprenticed) in barrel making before striking it out on their own. It has not been that way for some time Dustin. Blackers, Peter Higgins, Mike Birch...these are the guys doing the work for the big houses. H&H no longer has a barrel man at all.
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Joined: Dec 2020
Posts: 912 Likes: 363
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Dec 2020
Posts: 912 Likes: 363 |
I think my earlier post was insufficiently clear.
3 Guineas (we liked to use those to upset the Spaniards as the gold coins we stole from them were a tad to heavy to use as gold Sovereigns) was not the price of replacement chopper lump barrels in 1895.
It was the extra charge ( in this case on a best BLE by Edwinson Green) for using Whitworth chopper lump barrels on a gun whose base price was £35.0.0d bringing to a total of £38.3s.0d.
Forgive me for using Sterling, but that was how it was priced.
I do not believe a 100 Guinea gun would ever have been re-barrelled by best makers for 3 guineas (unless the customer was a Prince of the Realm, or holding a working gun to their heads, or both).
My WAG is that re barrelling a side by side would be at least 25% to 35% for the current new price of a similar gun.
It is notable however that muzzle loader to pinfire to centre fire to ejector conversions were carried out , which these days would appear absurdly uneconomic.
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 9,423 Likes: 314
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 9,423 Likes: 314 |
Colonial double gun makers would provide a 2nd set of barrels for about 1/2 of the price of the gun 1910 Norvell-Shapleigh Hdw. catalog The list for No. 00 NE was $60; No. 0 $82; No. 1 $102; Pigeon $160; No. 3 $134; No. 4 204$; No. 5 $268 and Monogram $478 = almost $15,000 today And BTW is not at all uncommon for the Hunter Arms shipping records to document a No. 2 with damascus barrels at a later date fitted at the factory with Armor Steel (No. 00) barrels
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 2,271 Likes: 521
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 2,271 Likes: 521 |
Last I heard…H&H, Purdey, and others make their own barrels in house. Pretty much always have. A barrel blank is not a barrel. They get those from whomever. The actual making of the barrel is done entirely in house. Other provincial makers almost certainly outsource the barrel work unless they themselves specialized (apprenticed) in barrel making before striking it out on their own. It has not been that way for some time Dustin. Blackers, Peter Higgins, Mike Birch...these are the guys doing the work for the big houses. H&H no longer has a barrel man at all. Really? I had not heard that. I guess I better get caught up. Hard to believe Purdeys and H&H’s big investments in new computer controlled brazing furnaces etc and barrel boring equipment, etc went to waste. Damn.
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 6,993 Likes: 402
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 6,993 Likes: 402 |
H&H has recently made some of the bench men redundant for the very first time. After the new owners made that decision some of the old staff left on their own. H&H being without a barrel man is a new development and not of their choosing I believe. The big houses outsourcing re-barrel work is not new.
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