All the stainless and titanium technology make things much more durable. I keep forgetting that's applied to these look alikes. They don't build them with original spec, I wouldn't either. The several Delisles I've had in hand were baffle design not Archimedean spiral. And true to design demand, they sounded "Completely unlike a weapon even at a few yards to men who were accustom to the sound of weapons"...
I seem to recall having to cut, with a power hacksaw, and then turn some Aluminium Bronze solid bar of around 2" diameter some years ago. I seem to remember it being an unbelievably tough material to work with. I even struggled to cut it with a power hacksaw.
I'm not sure, but was just going on what I was told by the person who wanted the item machined and who supplied the material. It was certainly a bronze alloy and I believe the application was for a working part scale steam engine part. The kind of model big enough to ride on. The main criteria was for wear resistance but there were also corrosion and high pressure steam considerations for choosing the alloy.
That'll be nickel bronze. A different beast! Aluminium bronze is easy to cut and machine but easy to cast hence it was used for a short period to cast breech blocks instead of having to machine them. But they didn't last long as the sear faces were easily damaged
Last edited by Peter Laidler; 10-14-2015 at 01:27 PM.
PM
