Prewar machining excellence

[45flint]

A quality rifle indeed.

Another nice touch is the fact that the rear sight blade runs in a slot that is blind ( doesnt run all the way to the bottom of the base ), which is different to most of the other turret rear sight's that you see. Another mark of machining quality. I bet it was an expensive rifle in its day.

Very interesting thing.

Lakey

Look at the machining on the front sight, the little bevel on the post! Crazy detail that few would ever notice? Machining art.

[Lakey]

Look at the machining on the front sight, the little bevel on the post! Crazy detail that few would ever notice? Machining art.

Love the attention to detail. Very nice indeed.



Lakey

[Garvin]

I love those details too. Especially where the work is done on several planes - and so I imagine must be very complex to do without CNC hardware.

Such as this pre-WW1 Diana trigger block:





And the front sight on this postwar HW35 1st series.

[ptdunk]

The WRHP front sight, and the miniature 1905 Britannia rearsight are both nicely machined too.






Matt

[Garvin]

The WRHP front sight, and the miniature 1905 Britannia rearsight are both nicely machined too.



Matt

Talking of which, another postwar sight that is machined with prewar skill is the Falke 80/90 rearsight:

[ptdunk]

Talking of which, another postwar sight that is machined with prewar skill is the Falke 80/90 rearsight:

Very nice,
The reputation of that rearsight is well deserved.

[Powderfinger]

Impressive work. Thank you for all these fascinating photos.

[harvey_s]

Look at the machining on the front sight, the little bevel on the post! Crazy detail that few would ever notice? Machining art.

From an era when there was pride in your product rather than built to a price.
Standards of living for the working man being much poorer giving cheap labour helped enormously

[edbear2]

From an era when there was pride in your product rather than built to a price.
Standards of living for the working man being much poorer giving cheap labour helped enormously

It's Just a steel casting, like the prewar BSA units, or an old Williams /host of other makers .granted a nicely detailed one but not a machined part I would say personally, the skill would have been by the pattern / die maker.

The breech blocks on say militias and other older German stuff are also often forgings, giving various shapes which can't be got by machine tools in a sensible price / time, but hand finished in a time when time was cheaper to some extent.

In the 1920. a BSA Standard would be a weeks wages for a time served fitter / turner, so in todays money maybe £450-500 take home a week.

So looking at the bonkers prices of some top end PCP's and even TX's and Prosports, guns actually cost more now!

ATB, Ed

[45flint]

It's Just a steel casting, like the prewar BSA units, or an old Williams /host of other makers .granted a nicely detailed one but not a machined part I would say personally, the skill would have been by the pattern / die maker.

The breech blocks on say militias and other older German stuff are also often forgings, giving various shapes which can't be got by mahine tools in a sensible price time, but hand finished in a time when time was cheaper to some extent.

In the 1920. a BSA Standard would be a weeks wages for a time served fitter / turner, so in todays money maybe £450-500 take home a week.

So looking at the bonkers prices of some top end PCP's and even TX's and Prosports, guns actually cost more now!

ATB, Ed

“forgings usually require further processing (such as machining) to achieve a finished part.” Have to take a closer look when I get home.

[trajectory]

To my way of thinking there is undoubtedly skilfully machining evident on some of the older pre war air rifles/pistols & indeed some are very well finished with regards to polishing & blueing but isn't that just part of the story? I think that the design is in some way or another fundamental in bringing about the whole. If the design is not particularly good aesthetically or functionally then the other processes cannot retrieve the situation. It's this combination which in my opinion makes some of the older examples from various makers more interesting than others.

[edbear2]

“forgings usually require further processing (such as machining) to achieve a finished part.” Have to take a closer look when I get home.

BSA cast units for comparison, and a trigger guard.As you say further ops are done in some cases, ie. the spotface and tapping of the guard in the second picture, but honestly although old air rifles are often better made in respect of using castings and forgings, and aesthetic touches, most is very basic in terms of engineering and often just removing sharp edges and the like.

Older air rifles are just like anything else made say in the same period, be it tools or cars / motorbikes etc. before the bean counters took over.






ATB, Ed

[45flint]

BSA cast units for comparison, and a trigger guard.As you say further ops are done in some cases, ie. the spotface and tapping of the guard in the second picture, but honestly although old air rifles are often better made in respect of using castings and forgings, and aesthetic touches, most is very basic in terms of engineering and often just removing sharp edges and the like.

Older air rifles are just like anything else made say in the same period, be it tools or cars / motorbikes etc. before the bean counters took over.






ATB, Ed

Don’t really disagree but to me he artfully removed the sharp edge. Just a nice simple touch, something you don’t see on the BSA or other sights. Even the rounding and shaping of the bead?