Parker Fluid Steels

[Bruce Day]

The following technical explanation may be boring or of no interest to some readers, if so just pass it by.

Questions often arise concerning the various fluid steels used by Parker; Vulcan, Parker Steel, Titanic, Acme and Jos. Whitworth. The questions seen here concern 1) whether one steel is "stronger" than another, and 2) whether there are any differences between them, some going so far as to conjecture that Parker merely called the same steel by different names for some kind of marketing ploy.

As to the strength issue, I know of no tests that have been done that demonstrates that one fluid steel ruptures at a different pressure than another or is more resistant to wear than another. We do know that Parker proofed all their barrels alike, Damascus and fluid, and all had to meet Parker standards, which standards were consistent with pressures that were later adopted by the Small Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers Institute ( SAAMI), and Parker increased proof pressures as SAAMI proof pressures increased. As to wear issues, previously published in this forum has been a Parker letter to an inquiring customer who was considering buying a C grade. As to the C steels, Parker ranked Acme, Bernard then Damascus in order of wear resistance.

Concerning the different fluid steels, we know that Parker procured them from different manufacturers, and lists of those providers have been published here. The alloy compositions were proprietary to the manufacturers and the precise alloys are not known, however, barrel steels fell within certain ranges of components and variations were slight. The barrels steels were purchased at different costs by Parker, and we have lists of how much they cost, starting at Vulcan and progressing to Whitworth. We sometimes hear of speculations that the fluid steels were all the same, but in my opinion, the procurement from different suppliers at different costs is inconsistent with the steels being the same. I know of no recent metallurgical analyses of the various steels.

There is additional evidence of difference. Barrel refinishers will tell you that the higher grade fluid steels will take a better, finer polish than the lower grades when using identical polishing techniques and grits. To me this demonstrates the finer grain structure of the higher grade steels.

To illustrate this point, I have attached several photos of two barrels, the top being a set of Parker Steel barrels from a P and the bottom a set of Titanics from a D. These were finished the same, and the difference in sheen, though subtle, is present. The difference is more pronounced between Vulcans and Acmes, but you can see it between even these PS and T steels. Of course this makes no difference to rupture or wear resistance, only to appearance.