Make no bones about it... the original rib matting at Parker was NOT rolled. It was CUT.
It was done with a single cutter head that was dragged through the metal. Dispacing it more than cutting actually. It was done one line at a time. Then the machine would re-index for the next line.
The barrels fed on one axis while at the same time the cutter head moved back and forth on the opposing axis thus creating the wavy line. The amplitude and latitude of the line changed as it went down the length of the barrel. This caused the lines to naturally converge on a taper. This was done utilizing a special cam in the machine.
The barrels sat on a table that was a "U" type shape and could be trunioned back and forth for concave ribs or locked in the middle for flat ribs.
The cutter was lifted and restarted in order to leave the blank for the makers mark which was rolled on or hand engraved in some instances.
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B. Dudley
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