The following 2 part article originally appeared in the July 2005 issue of Shotgun Sports magazine, 800.676.8920

As the saying goes…”Folks, this is history in the making!”
For anyone genuinely interested or involved in the gunmaking art and its history, this article is a must read!

For literally generation after generation the art of gunmaking has evolved in a lengthy, slow, to-be-expected manner.
From time to time something different and “revolutionary” came along.
The idea and use of interchangeable parts, necessitated by wars and conflicts, kept soldiers and their firearms in the field fighting. Prior to this, blacksmiths and gunsmiths that traveled with the armies had to forge, hammer, fit and tune each part to each gun in order to keep it operational.
Fluid steel made the use of roll hammered barrels obsolete. Subsequently, due to the superior tensile strength properties, this made the birth of smokeless powders and self-contained cartridges inevitable.
For more than one hundred years high grade sporting arms have been in the realm of the elite, wealthy, privileged.
In Europe, royalty and persons of title were owners of the fine, hand-made, highly decorated firearms. These hand-made pieces of the gunmakers art were, and are time intensive as to the turn-around a client is required to wait before delivery.

The following is an exclusive interview with Mr. Karl Lippard of Joseph Brazier, Ltd.
Johnny Cantu, Editor-in-Chief of Shotgun Sports Magazine is performing the interview.
This interview may well be your first chance to read about truly “revolutionary” and gun trade changing innovations.
The subject matter discussed here may very likely change the way guns will be made from now on.

This interview takes place in my office at Shotgun Sports Magazine in Auburn, CA.
Karl Lippard and I have been friends for many years. Us Texans stick together forever!
A mutual friend of ours, Dan Reeves, introduced us. At the time Karl was the General Manager and COO of Perazzi USA. Later, Dan asked us both to be members of Team USA traveling to France to compete against Team France in ball trap. The event being the Flash Cup in Poitiers.
After four days of hard fought competition, Team USA emerged victorious! I was fortunate to be named Most Valuable Shooter for Team USA. Karl and I had a great time oversees together and the friendship has lasted.
We are both a little older, greyer and heavier now but, we still love to talk about guns.
In this instance, the making of guns.

Johnny Cantu: Karl, it’s been a long time since we shot together in France with Dan Reeves, Dan Carlisle, Bob Allen and the rest of Team USA.
So good to see you again.
Karl Lippard: Yes, Johnny it’s been a while. We had a good time together over the pond. I seem to recall you garnered the Grand Cup for Team USA in the
deciding match. It’s good to see you again, too.

JC: Karl, I have been hearing some interesting things about a new Sporting shotgun that you designed at Joseph Brazier, Ltd. For
John Wilkes, Gunmakers.
KL: Yes thank you. I think we discussed the concept together some years ago of making precision parts for guns. In this case, John and Tom Wilkes of London
agreed with my concept and acting as their Chief Design Engineer, designed an over/under shotgun for them.

JC: Where does Joseph Brazier, Ltd. Come in? I know they have made gun locks since the early 1800’s.
KL: Yes, they have. They made parts for the American Hawkin rifle, and for major manufacturers worldwide. Most recently they have produced technically
advanced cannon locks for the HMS Victory that look much as they did in 1770. Mr. Craig Whitsey and I work closely in England on what ever challenge
given to Brazier. But, basically we manufacture parts and components for the trade which includes full engineering services. The John Wilkes O/U was one of our projects and those components are delivered to Wilkes where Craig Whitsey and I prepare the final product for the market.

JC: But the new Wilkes gun was designed here in the USA. Isn’t that a first?
KL: Yes, I believe it is the first sidelock O/U shotgun designed in the USA. Certainly there has never been a gun as a composite this technically advanced. It was designed in 287 days using new techniques I developed. There was no prototype made. The gun went straight to production and assembly as a finished
engraved product including the Solid barrels.
JC: The Solid barrels you mention, what are those?
KL: The Solid barrel I designed for the Wilkes has a lot of attributes in its own right, but what is revolutionary is that it is made of one solid piece of vacuum arc
remelt steel. The top rib, side ribs, forend rib and barrel lug are all integral to the barrel. No solder joints to come loose or welding on the barrel.
The barrels are delivered to Wilkes ready for bluing. Given the nod from John and Tom Wilkes, Briley Mfg. in Houston, TX, chokes the barrels after I check the pattern of each one on the range.
JC: Is Wilkes the only gunmaker with these barrels on their gun today?
KL: Yes, however Brazier is working with a number of other gunmakers for SolidSolid and MonoSolid barrels on their guns.

JC: How do you regulate the Solid barrels in an over/under?
KL: Well, I think that is classified except to say “With mathematics”. The equation is “time in recoil” in that if a barrel did not move when fired then the angle of
convergence would be easy to determine. But, when a gun is fired recoil moves the barrels in different ways. The projectile under compression in the barrel
creates harmonics surely but, the recoil moves the barrel and at the point in space when the projectile exits the barrel determines convergence.
And while you may have that calculated, it is very difficult to drill holes straight, round and within a tolerance of a quarter of a degree over the length. Then,
converging barrel holes is another problem. Having done this, the problem is now how to profile down into the steel and locate the bores within a small
tolerance. I have solved that problem and believe me it is a combined effort to bring these barrels to the market. In the end there are no such thing as
“problems”. There are only “issues” that need to be resolved. I don’t mind saying that the first gun which was completely finished when I patterned it, it was a relief to see the math was correct. I had made 25 on the first run!

JC: Tell me about the new Wilkes gun. What is so different about it?
KL: Well, that is a long question to answer as it involves wood, barrels, action design, manufacturing technologies, interchangeability and a declining labor force….
The gun was designed with all of these areas considered together as a composite system. Designing a gun is straight forward. Designing a concept this radical has far reaching ramifications.
The shotgun was designed to have interchangeability of components. For a sidelock gun this increases the difficulty factor significantly. Most English guns have been made using a “case hardened” material. The material is soft. After the part is made the metal is heat treated and the “case” or outside of the part is
hardened to give it strength. Unfortunately, this material moves, swells and bends. Therefore use of such a material will not allow for interchangeability of
components. Parts generally installed in or, on this material, are not often hardened as well, this compounds the problem of fitting.
So at Brazier we selected for the Wilkes project a material called S7. It is a VAC tool steel in which the metal has been remelted in a furnace to remove
impurities. One of its attributes is its bursting properties of over 300,000 psi and its ability to hold tolerance after hardening. The tolerances we hold are
generally 50 microns or half the diameter of a human hair. So, this material agrees with our design and therefore leaves parts interchangeable. With the
interchangeability issue resolved it affords the opportunity to select various engraved types of top levers, trigger plates and sidelocks. One could have several different guns simply by changing the lock plates. If this is true, then wood can also be made interchangeable provided you address matters of shrinkage and the ability to cut highly figured wood by machine without cracking it. Brazier developed a impregnation system called “MMC6”. It will be available to the trade in 2005. These issues being resolved, the barrels came next which are very labor intensive. The SolidSolid and MonoSolid ™ were designed to solve those labor problems and increase the safety of the firearm from barrel bursts of the past. Understand of course that S7 does not like machines. It does not like human beings touching it. It has secrets of how to harden it, from scaling or turning black. I think it likes me now but we did not get along for quite a while!
That would be a rough overview.

JC: You mentioned the Boss locking system. What exactly is that and how does it apply to your design?
KL: First a Boss locking system is one that relies on a block or, boss that the barrel locks up on when the barrel is closed. A Boss has a hinge pin, not a trunnion. In other words, a Boss hinges on a hinge pin. It does not lock up on it as normal guns do. It has no stress associated with it. Therefore, on a Boss, it is just a blade protruding from the action on which the barrels hinge. On the Wilkes shotgun, it has removable “bosses” attached to the action inside. If combined tolerances suggest a headspace condition, these barrel bosses are removed and replaced with numbered bosses that move the barrel to the breach face in increments. Unless the bosses are removable, the combined exactness is very hard to replicate. However, when this system was determined as the choice, normally an ejector mechanism would have to be located in the forend. The Wilkes choice was both simple and complex. It is a design of cross compression using an existing design for another purpose. In any case the design provides for interchangeability of barrels and fitting is greatly reduced. It allows for a short and light forend without stress from forced compression on the action. It also makes the Wilkes action so strong, that rifle barrels require no special attention.

JC: Can you make rifle barrels Solid?
KL: Yes we can. In some ways it is easier. We can make them with integral sites and sling swivels.

JC: How many different barrel designs do you have at Brazier?
KL: There are eight basic models of barrels that cover all barrels ever made. They are:
SS Models: SolidSolid over/under and SxS of all types
M Models: MonoSolid over/under and SxS of all types
C Models: Composites of all types
T Models: Tubes for barrels of all types
X Models: Sleeves of all types
S Models: Screw barrels of all types
R Models: Rifled barrels of all types
Mtr Models: Military barrels of all types

JC: Which model would be used for restoration of say, a Damascus barrel or a gun out of proof?
KL: That would be an X model. Here the barrel would be cut out in chamber and tube length. Into that we would replace the material removed with a sleeve. That sleeve would carry the bursting properties of the barrel and leave the cosmetics of the barrel virtually untouched. At the moment the SS and M barrels have our undivided attention and these barrels will come on line as interest and demand dictates. There are estimated to be 20 million barrels made each year of all types. With our subcontractors we have the ability to produce the world consumption of barrels but the logistics of doing that all at once for a one man show is an “issue worth a resolving!”

::: Continue to Part 2 :::