_Plain Steel-Barrel Guns._—Of course there are guns with “plain steel barrels,” as they are called, which pass muster as fair; and the barrels of these are made by a process differing materially from that described in the foregoing; all else connected with the making is the same. These plain steel barrels are made of round bars of steel two inches in diameter. The bars are first cut into lengths of nine inches each; a hole or bore three-fourths of an inch in diameter is drilled through the centre. They are now called moulds, and the next step is to pass them through rolls, which reduce them to the required size for barrels and stretch them out to the required length, holding them, at the same time, in the proper shape, externally. Having been thus rolled, they are bored out internally, turned and ground externally, until they have attained to the shape and proportions of correctly-formed barrels. After this comes the fitting up and “proving,” as in the case of the finer guns. CHAPTER III. GUNS NOW IN USE. _Guns Defined._—Excepting the pistol, and the mortar, perhaps, all fire-arms now in use are classed under the name of guns. The cannon or artillery ordnance in all its sizes and forms, is simply a large gun. It is variously divided off, according to character, into heavy siege-guns, field-pieces, rifled-cannon and smooth-bores. These again are sub-divided into a large number of different kinds, as the Armstrong, the Dahlgren, the Columbiad, the Paixhan, the Parrot, the Whitworth, etc. But with guns of this class the practical gunsmith will have nothing to do, and hence it is but reasonable to suppose that he feels no particular concern about them. It is with the small-arms that his concern will mainly lie, and therefore from this page to the conclusion of this work the gun mentioned will be some instrument classing with the small fire-arms, and liable to be brought to a gunsmith’s shop for repairs. The small arms, or hand guns, are muskets, rifles, carbines, fowling-pieces and pistols. These may be properly divided into three classes: the flint-lock, the percussion-lock and the cartridge breech-loader. _The Old Flint-Lock Guns._—Of the old flint-locks, only a few are now in existence within the United States. Here and there one has been kept as a kind of heirloom by some family, and occasionally these drop in upon the gunsmith for repairs, but not often. They are more common along the Mexican border in Texas, perhaps, than in any other portion of the country.