Barrel Flat Marking

[Autumn Daze]

Stephen, Page 583 in "The Parker Story" by Mullins, Price et al shows a copy of DelGrego's notebook that lists the HT/A as a designation for mild steel. The HT/A would certainly equate to a steel that has been heat treated and then annealed. In my experience in the machining industry we have used like markings. Just for the sake of clarity...Hope we have been of help and looking forward to your article.

Ed, Great to see you posting. Get well young man.

[Bill Zachow]

Steve, the 8 ounce reduction does seem to be a lot, but is possible if there was a fair amount of solder flash and if Parker had to plane the barrels down to meet a customer's weight requirement. Is there much swamp to the barrels?

[Parkerman]

Steven
I remember an article that you did some years ago--a Fox 20 ga that was redone with a remarkable result. I look forward to your fine work on a Parker.

Linn

[Kevin McCormack]

Steven;

Please tell us the SN of this gun. It may be the key to interpreting the marks in question. The HT/A and K markings are not "unknown or unexplainable"; HT/A could stand for high tensile strength alloy (e.g., chrome or molybdenym) and the K may well stand for a steelmaking process derivative of the Krupp (Germany) process developed and perfected almost in tandem with the English Sheffield steelmaking process of the late 1920's/early 1930's. Winchester took advantage of both in the production of the Model 21, which used steel produced under both formulae throughout the gun, resulting in incredible ductile (psi. resilience and elasticity) properties which represented the first real breakthrough in gun barrel steel making since Sir Joseph Whitworth's "compressed fluid steel" process developed just before the turn of the century (pre-1900). The SN of this gun is crucial to the interpretation of these marks.