Ian
Thanks for once again dispelling the myths that surround the lines seen on some old gun actions. The path of these lines also indicates that the Gun makers and forge masters of the period understood the importance of correct grain flow to maximising ultimate strength of the action. For this reason todays engineers designing forged components specify by means of a diagram the grain flow they require .
Whist some Birmingham gun makers did produce small forgings for sporting guns. It is very likely that because of the size of the action body and the corresponding large capacity of the forging machines required, that this work would have been outsourced to specialist forge shops operating in surrounding Black Country towns,such as Hales Owen and Darlaston.
We tend to forget that the majority of Gun Barrels and gun locks used by the Birmingham Trade were in fact outsourced to business located in the Black Country towns.
Birmingham producers of military weapons for example; B.S.A, Webley and Scott and to some extent Greener did producer high volume forgings and gun barrels in house.
