STUB DAMASCUS BARRELED GUN
The [plate (No. 3)] opposite represents stub twist and stub Damascus; the former, if properly attended to in manufacture, will long hold its station in the construction of good guns. An excellent second-rate gun can be made for about 20l., with case, &c. At this time there are a great number made at this price: in fact, very few cost more; even those of the best production of Birmingham. Superior articles to any yet produced could be made there, if occasion demanded it, and if there were a sufficiency of heads to direct and control. The generality of gunmakers in Birmingham are merely mechanics, and when you say this, all has been said that can be: a vast majority of excellent workmen have never fired a gun, and know nothing, strictly speaking, of its use. A gunmaker, in the true meaning of the word, is, or ought to be, an enthusiast; delighting in, and living for, his art alone; without being clogged with prejudice or with a stubborn mind that refuses to advance, but animated by a spirit to conceive and realize the emanations of genius.
I have already sufficiently enlarged upon the inferiority of barrels made from charcoal iron. A great quantity of these guns are made or got up for the general factors, who take orders for everything, from “a needle to an anchor;” but they manufacture nothing, and only employ their money for a moderate return. The hardwareman is the principal seller of this description of guns; he generally pays between eight and ten pounds each for them, and retails them at from twelve to fourteen pounds, if he can make his customers believe that they are as good as they can get elsewhere for twenty pounds. I have known a tradesman of this kind sell more guns in a season than three gun-makers in the same town during the same time. A certain portion of the warranty was correct, “that they were as good as could be got elsewhere for eighteen pounds;” for the articles, as far as barrels and locks are concerned, are identically the same.
Unfortunately, the generality of gunmakers are content to live like the snail, who cares not how the world goes, so long as his house remains whole above his head; rather than try to improve their productions, or to meet the exigencies of the times, they are content to allow the trade to be injured by the influx of worthless articles, to their own loss and the discredit of the business generally. The enormous prices which gentlemen have been charged for provincial-made guns of the most inferior quality, has driven them to obtain still worse at a less cost. An honourable and tradesmanlike method of conducting business will always be appreciated, and if a gun be required at a low figure, an honestly-made article might be furnished at a price to suit the customer, and of equal and mutual benefit to buyer and seller. But this will not do: high prices or no orders is the rule. It would do very well if nothing were manufactured but high-priced articles, as good in quality as they pretend to be; but few provincial makers have the means to do this: an establishment sufficiently large can only be supported in certain districts. I must be excused for making these remarks, as I have both the interest of the maker, combined with that of the sporting world, in view, and have no other end to serve. I do not include all, only a part of the profession in these strictures, for there are many honourable exceptions.
The ironmonger receives these inferior guns, and disposes of them as stub-twist barrels: he knows no other, nor would he care if he did. A flashy outside is very captivating to the novice; but one or two years’ use will soon show the quality of the article: the wood then shrinks, the glue and wax wash out of the fittings, and an apparently crazy and breaking-up constitution displays itself most clearly: for work put together at a certain price will have only a certain duration. Were I free of the gun-making profession entirely, and asked for my conscientious advice in the purchasing of a gun, I should decidedly say, buy a gun from no one who has not a character to lose; who is not only answerable for the article he sells, but also capable of judging of the quality, and appreciates the value of good materials. The trade is over-run with swarms of Jew salesmen and others, who cannot, nor ever will be, able to duly understand and appreciate the responsibility attached to the profession of a gun-maker.
There have been individuals in Birmingham who realised considerable sums by manufacturing guns of this quality only for two or three sale shops of puffing celebrity in London, and so extensive are their orders still, that an engraver is kept in full employment by them, the excellence of whose forged imitations of names, &c., is wonderful: so devoid of shame and debased in intellect do men become from perseverance in evil. Joe Manton’s guns have become like pictures of celebrated masters; had he produced one per hour during his existence, he could not have made one-half of the number that bear his name.
Guns made of threepenny skelp iron are plentifully to be met with in sale-shops and pawnbroking establishments; they generally bear false colours and hail from fictitious ports, and are bedecked with painted stocks and tawdry imitation gold and silver ornaments; but as to the mechanical arrangement, to use a Brummagism, they are as if they had been pitched together. A decent gun could be made with barrels of this quality, if constructed a little heavier than usual; and it would be perfectly safe, and suited for the use of those who could not purchase better: if firm and soundly fitted up, with decent locks, sound stock, &c., it would be worth about eight guineas; but you can get them by the hundred in Birmingham for 3l. 15s. each, and, if you particularly wish it, at 2l. 15s., or less; and single guns, with plated barrels, about half that sum.
We have now reached the utmost limits of civilization, and are about to pass the great desert, where science is never seen or heard of, except it be in the pretences of an inventor of deceptions: things of wood and iron, called guns. Pocket volcanoes would be a fitter title, or portable exploders—for no one can possibly expect anything but destruction who uses such compounds of dangerous contrivances. But for the edification of those who use such, we give the prices of each part and cost of manufacture of them: the statement is literally true; and, except that by possibility the items may vary a penny or two, the whole is substantially correct.