Barrel steels

[Researcher]

From my collection of barrel flat pictures the early fluid steel guns only sported two different barrel steel marks -- Kf on the flats of Vulcan Steel barrels --

118634 02 Kf barrel steel mark.jpg

and K on the flats of barrels rib marked both Titanic & Acme --

92809 03.jpg

In the mid 13xxxx range I see the transition to the letter(s) in a circle markings -- V, P, P.S., T or A.

[Bill Murphy]

Suponski's last entry was not Parker Special Steel. It was Parker Steel which was used on P grade hammerless guns. In my opinion, all of these steels can be safely used with the mentioned wall thicknesses.

[Drew Hause]

I'll go with what Parker Bros. said; Sears catalog No. 112 1902 "BORED FOR NITRO OR BLACK POWDER"



And we know that the pressures of c. 1900 Smokeless Powder loads were very similar to the shells available today.

In light of the >100 year old wood however, it would be reasonable to choose lower RECOIL loads.