The thimbles may be made of brass, iron, or German silver, according to taste, but iron is generally preferred. Take common sheet or Russia iron, the same as used for making stove-pipe. The best thickness is about twenty-two or twenty-three, by the English gauge. For convenience, get the sheet cut in strips from an inch to an inch and a-half in width—the tinsmith’s squaring shears being a ready means to cut up the sheet into strips. Generally make the upper thimble about an inch and a half long, and the lower or middle thimbles, be these one or two, a little narrower, say, about an inch. For permanency and looks a long thimble is preferable. Cut off pieces from the strips of sheet-iron, just long enough to go around the ramrod, then roll them up like a tube by bending them around a tapered steel rod, using a small hard wood mallet for the purpose, holding them in the vise to assist in the operation. For rifle rods, which are not tapered, the thimbles may be rolled up on a straight piece of steel, a trifle larger than the rod, so that the rod will slide easily within when put in place. Take pains in forming them, so that the fold or joint will come evenly and squarely together. _How to Put Thimbles on Barrels._—File bright and tin the thimbles where they are to be joined to the rib. Observe if the thimbles fit the rod properly by putting the rod in them and then inserting the rod in place in the gun stock. Mark the place on the rib or barrel where the thimbles are to be fastened, and remove both rod and thimbles from the gun. If to be attached to a rib, file a spot the length of the thimbles where it was marked, and file it of a depth equal to the thickness of the metal of which the thimble is made. Too deep filing may cut through the rib, and too little filing will leave the thimble projecting above the rib, so that the rod will hit or rub as it is being pushed down in place. Also let the joint of the thimble come in the centre of the rib when it is soldered in place. Tin the places filed, by heating the barrel carefully over the forge fire, using the soldering acid as for tinning the thimbles. A common tinner’s soldering copper is best to apply the solder. When the barrel is cool enough to handle put the thimbles on the rod, and the rod in place as it is intended to be when finished. Confine the thimbles to the barrel with pieces of binding wire, using two pieces to a thimble, one at each end. By putting the rod into the thimbles and confining them thus, there is no danger of their being “askew” after being fastened, and by putting on two wires there is less danger of their moving while being soldered to the barrel.