Paul is undertaking a shorter bursary than our usual 4-year apprenticeship, he is learning a new skill of barrel repairs which will add to his current skill of barrel backing.
Paul comments as follows:
“Since being awarded the bursary, we have taken what used to be our office and turned it into an extra workshop space. A new double-glazed window has been delivered, and the trees on the other side have been cleared to let in decent light.
We have fitted in benches and a vice, shelving and polishing wheels. Simon, who is teaching me, has given me back the lapping machine he borrowed from my grandfather in the early seventies!! We have some hydraulic dent raisers as well as plugs, a second bench has been put into the main workshop just for stripping and relaying ribs and putting loops back in.
We have mainly been doing strip and the relay of ribs, I have been taught how to take the ribs off without bending them. I bent the first one, but I guess you have to make mistakes along the way to learn.
I have been shown how to clean up the ribs and the barrels for relaying, how to paste and tin all the parts to be relayed and how to wire them up. I know different people have different ways of doing ribs, and of course, before relaying I check for dents, bulges etc.
I am aware that every rib job is different. Some may have a brazed top rib and tinned side ribs, some have the loop brazed in, so each job has to be assessed before starting. Small things have been pointed out to me, like a recent Beretta relay; the gun had Teague chokes, but they were slightly off, so when you looked at the muzzle end, the wall thickness was good in one area and like cigarette paper in the other. It is being drummed into me to keep checking everything as it would be easy to go through these barrels when papering up.
I can see an improvement in my work since starting, but I can also see things I need to improve on, but the more I do, the better I will get.”
Paul Stevens March 2023
Here are his tutors’ comments from the period worked so far:
“It has been a pleasure to teach Paul, he is very keen to learn, and I am confident that he can relay ribs alone now. He has never been taught how to file correctly, but that is something we are working on, once the ribs are relayed, he preps them very well, but his experience of being a barrel finisher means he has had plenty of experience with this. Next up will be raising dents, knocking down bulges and measuring bores. This, I feel, will take longer to do as you do not learn how to do this overnight.”
Simon Mather March 2023
And so, my fellow Gunmakers: Ask not what your Trust can do for you – ask what you can do for your Trust!
Please Help:
Our apprentices are spread out geographically across the UK, which is a great positive. We are always looking for additional Mentors to cover the various parts of the UK where it is a stretch for our current Mentors.
If anyone would like to put themselves forward to becoming a mentor, please contact us.
