In his article on the forging of rifle barrels, Jacques Benmussa not only explains the making of these objects, but also demonstrates them.
"The methods of manufacture varied from one shop to another according to the experience of the smiths and the tools. In some cases it took sixty hot and three hours to forge an infantry rifle barrel; it took thirty hot to forge a musket rifle barrel (shorter) and one hour and forty-five minutes of labour. The work on a cannon usually required 2 craftsmen: a worker held one end of the mandrel and the master smith shaped and welded the iron of the cannon around the mandrel. The master smith used 2 pound hammers and the assistant smith wielded 8 and 5 pound hammers, they struck alternately, one to weld the blade the other to tighten the pores of the metal."
