stock straightening

[ArtS]

Originally Posted by edgarspencer

That, in itself, was quite a chore, He's terrible about answering his phone. I found, in the past, that it's best to call him before 8am.

Sadly, Mitch Shultz, has retired, but we talked about honing, or opening chokes on composite barrels. His take on it was that from a practical point, there is no reason to avoid this type of work, and he believed the reluctance of others came down a liability concern, but not a metallurgical one.

I have been told the same about the physical work. Most people who do any of this have told me that the composite barrels are softer and much easier to bore or hone. I was told this by Skeets when I had the latest barrel bored.

Also, there is a question of boring vs honing. It takes a good inventory of reamers to cover the honing requirements, but the cost of significant removal can be half the job cost when paying for hones. From the smith standpoint I suspect that their preference would be to bore and then polish.

[Aaron Beck]

Wrought iron is softer than steel but due to its inclusions it doesnt machine as well. It can very quickly dull cutting tools and perhaps this is why someone would avoid damascus. I would agree that liability is a more likely concern and certainly so for dent raising, but the cost of the tooling isnt a small matter especially when the operator is doing high quality work at bottom line prices.

[edgarspencer]

Originally Posted by Aaron Beck

Wrought iron is softer than steel but due to its inclusions it doesnt machine as well. It can very quickly dull cutting tools and perhaps this is why someone would avoid damascus. I would agree that liability is a more likely concern and certainly so for dent raising, but the cost of the tooling isnt a small matter especially when the operator is doing high quality work at bottom line prices.

I am not sure what Mike Orlen uses, but I think it is the same as Mitch Shultz's machine; a Sunnen hone.

[ArtS]

For what it's worth, when I had the barrel done by Skeets last winter, he told me that he pretty much bored everything due to the cost of the hones which wear out very quickly as opposed to the reamers which can be sharpened. Chokes and boring makes up the bulk of his work I would guess due to the trapshooter following of the shop.

[Stan Hillis]

Originally Posted by Arthur Shaffer

I believe he only works on steel barrels and won't do anything to composite barrels.

Orlen honed a set of Remington 1889 composite barrels for me several years ago to remove some pitting. He didn't like the idea but he did it anyway. I wouldn't send him another set, though. He did a good job on that set for me, but I have found out in other situations that you usually don't come out good when you convince a gunsmith, or other tradesmen for that matter, to do a job for you that they really don't want to do.