Before anybody gets alarmed, I am NOT making a gun of any kind. I have a friend who is offering me a Ruger 10/22 barrel to forge something out of. I told him I would rather see it put into a working firearm rather than waste it.

If he insists, however, has anybody ever used an old barrel for a project? What kind of steel is it? I'm having trouble getting an answer for that online and I searched it here, but the term "gun" is banned in the search. I understand why. We don't want anybody getting blown up trying to forge one. Any thoughts?

Unless they are perfect for some unusual project, I'm inclined to sell or donate it to a local gunsmith.
Thanks!

The reason for the search engine not cooperating is gun is a 3 letter word. Actually there are several discussions on the site about guns.

Too bad it's not a .50 caliber or larger blackpower barrel. You could then forge a pipe tomahawk fron it.

Would make several monkey tools for small tenons.

I use the cut off end of a gun barrel as a swage when forging small cowboy hats from old solid copper alloy pennies---I bought a coffee can of barrel pieces from a gunsmith at Quad-State one year.

As I recall gun barrels are usually fairly low in carbon and so won't make good knives without the addition of some High C in a billet.

Miniature pipe tomahawk?

If you had a bunch of them you could use them as cross bars in a:
- cooking grate
- hammer/tong rack
- rack for short pieces of stock

With one you could incorporate it as the:
- vertical section of a lamp
- flatten and make into various hooks
- cross piece in one or more towel racks
- cross support at the back of a computer table to support and organize cables.

The reason for the search engine not cooperating is gun is a 3 letter word. Actually there are several discussions on the site about guns.

Glenn

Is there a software limitation on the web software and that is why there has to be 4 or more letters to a word for the search to work? One other search word that won't work, would be axe. Sorry for the hijack

Brian Pierson

Art? Tie a knot in it and fab a wooden rest of the gun.

My 1970 "Forging Industry Handbook" lists 1041 as the steel for gun barrels.

some of the ruger 10/22's had stainless barrels

Good ideas all. Fortunately, the individual has opted to sell or give it to a gunsmith for re-use since it is in good shape. I do have an old 12 guage breech that I cut off, welded shut and use as a horizontal mandrel for forming uniform J hooks. The lug under the barrel is perfect for clamping in a vice.
Thanks for the input!

Ruger 10/22 barrells( that are not stainless) are hammer forged cold and made of an alloy almost identical to 4140. I work there.

Daniel

Thomas, the mini pipe hawk idea sounds neat. also, could you show some pics of the penny hats?

I forget which of my guns it is, but at least one of them says it's made from chrome molybdenum steel.

Penny hats pretty much look like any of the cowboy hats that have been posted here---just smaller!

You could turn it into a flute.


http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57543385-1/requiem-for-lives-lost-making-music-from-mexicos-guns/

A large number of guns collected in an L.A. gun buyback were melted down and turned in to rebar. I think they used some of that for the big sports venue (Staples Center maybe?).

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-guns-melted-20130730-story.html

 

 

Everyone always says rebar is the mystery meat or steel and all it has to do is be at least XXXX but you never know what else may be in there.

dug an old 303 heavy barrel out of the ground a while back,it was used as a tree stake until the tree claimed it,made a good snake ,put it on a board and presented it to captain of our club,the head looked good with eyes and the 'H' between the eyes

Thanks for the ideas. I used a .22 barrel as the crosspiece for a squatters chair. I have a couple more in the scrap pile waiting for something to be done with them. Cut and drilled for different sized nail headers perhaps.

I used a cut off piece from a 20 gauge muzzle loading smoothbore barrel and made a wad punch by sharpening the end. It made excellent over powder/under shot felt wads for the guy's .62 caliber muzzleloader.

Ohio Rusty ><>

The Ohio Frontier Forge