Shotgun barrel sleeving

[lewis32]

I have been given an very nice einglish s/s which requires the barrels to be sleeved due to pitting. 

I have noticed that S. ENTWISTLE (BLACKPOOL) offered the service at a resnable price. 

Has anyone had barrels sleeved by them before? As I just wanted to know what there work was like. 

[ditchman]

i take it that the pits are tooo deep for the barrels to be reamed out...often pits look worse than they are..............?

[lewis32]

Yes sadly they are quite cavernous.

[ditchman]

33 minutes ago, lewis32 said:

Yes sadly they are quite cavernous.

i had a an old sxs that i had sleeved...made a cracking job...couldnt see the join......Jo Wheater in Lincoln did it,.......dont know if the shop is still there.....only unfortunate thing was, that then by law the name on the rib had to be removed...as it was no longer percieved to be of that maker.....

[Gunman]

Wheater is long gone , would have sent all his work to Birmingham . As to Having to have the name removed , this is a myth . Pressure was put on the London Proof house by the big 3 to do this as they did not like the idea of their guns being sleeved . Birmingham started to follow suit but did not push it for long . I was involved with the sleeving of a lot of guns so I was in the know about this . One of the proof houses defaced the rib on a submitted sleeved gun and threats of legal action for damages stopped the practice as there was no legal reason to do so .

An example is that if you found a 1910 Rolls Royce in a barn and rebuilt it it would still bear the R & R badge and would be considered a Rolls . Only claiming it was original or that the work had been done by them would have been illegal .

There a several of people doing sleeving I but it will cost and I would be interested to know what people are quoting these days .

[old'un]

Don’t know if I dream't it, but did I see somewhere that they can line the original barrels with a thin tube?

Forget the idea of tube inserts, apparently the idea did not work.

Edited January 12, 2018 by old'un

[Dave at kelton]

Teague did barrel lining, I have two, but no longer does it so back to traditional sleeving. I would go to the trade in Birmingham. I highly recommend Benjamin Wild in Price street but sadly Colin Wild is no longer with us. There are seveal good Gunmakers in that street and I would call in and see one of them.

[old'un]

13 minutes ago, Dave at kelton said:

Teague did barrel lining, I have two, but no longer does it so back to traditional sleeving. I would go to the trade in Birmingham. I highly recommend Benjamin Wild in Price street but sadly Colin Wild is no longer with us. There are seveal good Gunmakers in that street and I would call in and see one of them.

Benjamin Wild is now run by Brian and Colin’s sister Liz.

[Dave at kelton]

Glad to see Benjamin Wild is still going with Bryan. Call in and see Bryan!

[Gordon R]

 

[Old Boggy]

It is such a shame that the lining process was not continued by Teagues as this was the way to preserve some lovely Damascus barrels. I understand that the method used had some problems, but surprised no-one has come up with a solution as an alternative to sleeving.

Sorry that this does not help the OP.

Also, not wishing to derail the original post, does anyone know roughly when the practice of stamping 'Sleeved' on the sides of the barrels as opposed to the barrel flats, was carried out. I have an old Woodward whose barrels were sleeved by Benjamin Wild (BW inside lozenge, logo) with 'Sleeved' on the sides. My initial enquiry with Wilds was not answered. Alternatively, is there anybody more au fait with proof marks, or able to interpret them, than me who, given a photo of them, could establish the date range.

OB

 

[Walker570]

Wisemans at Cannock would certainly be able to arrange it as well as numerous others.  If done by a competent gunsmith it can be as strong as the original.  I have a BSA sxs which my grandfather had sleeved, back just after the war, early 50s and it is still shooting well today. The bluing has now worn away through handling and in the right light you can just see the join. I think this was done by  C E Lewis, used to be in Steelhouse Lane, Birmingham.  

[Gunman]

It dosn't matter who you send it to it will almost certainly be set out to one of the few people who actually do the work . The now retired Foster's did a lot of work for the  trade and others as they did all work except proof and blacking in house . I have heard numerous references to Entwistles but have never seen any of there work . Midland Gun Services took on Fosters business, tools and equipment so worth a call .

Sleeving has declined over the last 10 years due to spiraling costs [ price of tubes , proof ,engraving, blacking and carriage not to mention labour ,we gunsmiths do like to get paid ] plus  the fact that the English gun market has also declined and gun values have dropped  making it no longer cost effective to have a gun sleeved.Added to this the fewer  guns that need sleeving . Quantity kept the costs down , buying tubes in bulk and "batch " production rather than one offs . Add to this the difficulty in sourcing tubes as most of the makers would only supply tubes in larger numbers , the cost of having these on stock became prohibitive to most so they relied on the the specialist workers who did .  

[Harnser]

1 hour ago, Gunman said:

It dosn't matter who you send it to it will almost certainly be set out to one of the few people who actually do the work . The now retired Foster's did a lot of work for the  trade and others as they did all work except proof and blacking in house . I have heard numerous references to Entwistles but have never seen any of there work . Midland Gun Services took on Fosters business, tools and equipment so worth a call .

Sleeving has declined over the last 10 years due to spiraling costs [ price of tubes , proof ,engraving, blacking and carriage not to mention labour ,we gunsmiths do like to get paid ] plus  the fact that the English gun market has also declined and gun values have dropped  making it no longer cost effective to have a gun sleeved.Added to this the fewer  guns that need sleeving . Quantity kept the costs down , buying tubes in bulk and "batch " production rather than one offs . Add to this the difficulty in sourcing tubes as most of the makers would only supply tubes in larger numbers , the cost of having these on stock became prohibitive to most so they relied on the the specialist workers who did .  

That all makes good sense . I think that a gun would have to have enormous sentimental value to invest in a re-sleeve .

harnser