damascus- raised dent

[Richard Flanders]

Mark: you have it right. You start with the first gage that will 'stick' at the dent, drive it in to where the dent is in the middle then tap around the edges of the dent with the plastic or leather hammer until the gage loosens then slide it out and go to the next size up and do it again until you have it where you want it. I do lightly lube the gages also. Care is needed to make sure you only tap the barrel where the gage is; if you tap past either end you'll dent the bbl, so you need to know the exact limits of the gage. To get the gage to where you want it in the barrel, you figure it out on the outside of the bbl then mark your dowel with tape and tap the gage in until the tape is at the breech.They come with very sharp edges so I bevel them on my grinder and polish the edge with an ez lap diamond steel so that they don't cut or mar any metal when they encounter the dent. They could easily do that if the dent is severe enough. Slow and easy and cautious is the order of the operation so as to "do no harm". If you google 'pin gages' you'll get tons of hits so they're no problem to find. I think my set only cost $54 but you can pay way more than that. Rutland Tool is a good supplier for all sorts of tools and tooling; They 're not the cheapest but they have the most complete supply of hardware and tools I've ever seen.