forged 1018

[freekforge]

Hope this is the right area since handgonnes are just cannons on a stick i assume it is. I have had an idea in the back of my head for awhile now of hammering out a handgonne from a pre drilled piece of 1018. Would the 1018 still be a suotable material for the barrel if it is brougjt to red hot and beat on with a hammer? If not is there a better steel for the job?

[Cannon Cocker]

1018 is a common material used for period cannon reproductions.  I'm not sure if or how it would be changed with heat and hammering.

[GGaskill]

I have had an idea in the back of my head for awhile now of hammering out a handgonne from a pre drilled piece of 1018.

While 1018 would be suitable for your project since heating short of melting has no appreciable effect on it, I would reverse your procedure and drill after all hammering was finished.  The forging would distort the bore if the hole were drilled before the forging was complete.

[freekforge]

Thanks for the info. My plan was to drill it smaller than bore size and then hammer over a mandrel and then clean up the bore with the final bore size drill/reamer. that soud like it will work?

[GGaskill]

That sounds OK.  What is your mandrel size?

[freekforge]

I'm not sure of the mandrel size yet. The finished bore size will be .50 .62 or .75 so I will have to figure out mandrel sizes from that. I've never mixed my machining hobby and blacksmithing hobby so I am taking it slow and doing some reading. If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them.

[KABAR2]

Hammering out a cannon barrel will compress the material, there was a method used in the 18th Century in Spain where old horse shoes were forge welded into some very fine and very strong gun barrels .... the compression the horse shoes got while in use changed the grain structure and made the metal very tough...... so compressing the metal of your barrel should actually make it stronger...,.