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 Today, the process begins by selecting a steel that combines all of the desired properties. For the technically inclined, EN 24, 817M40, SAE 4340, Werkstöff 1.6565, 40 NiCrMo 6, depending on the country where you acquired your engineering knowledge or perhaps even the generation you belong to. These properties include ductility, tensile strength and elongation. Then we true up and drill the solid forging to produce the basic tube. Repeated turning and profiling of the exterior, reaming and honing of the bore (which also generates the choke) provides us with a tube that only remains to be ground to rigorous standards of concentricity and elegant form before it is paired and ready for the second stage of the process.
 Shotgun or rifle, side-by-side or over-and-under, the two tubes must first be joined to create the barrel assembly. Final detailed checks and adjustments by the barrel maker ensure that the tubes, when made up, will not only perform their function but they will also impart vital balance to the gun. Silver-brazing of the chopper-lumps (or 'demi-bloc') at the breech effects a permanent joint and so the barrels are born. The fore-end loop is fixed into place and subtle blending of the breech area readies the assembly for the filing and 'dry' fitting of the ribs. Lavish attention is given to prepare a flawless profile, the feature that defines the difference between the ordinary and the best.
 Preparations completed, it's now time for assembling. Firstly the rib and barrel surfaces are carefully cleaned, tinned and the corrosive flux residues are washed off. Next, the ribs are carefully wired and wedged in place, ensuring at all times that the bores remain straight and parallel. Then, and only then, all are gently heated until the benign rosin flux suddenly causes the pure tin to run and thereby fuse the ribs to the barrels.
This age-old process forms a sealed and secure fixing that will withstand the repeated shock of firing. When struck gently, barrels with secure ribs will ring like a bell. Furthermore, the low temperature at which the tinning takes place will not have drawn the temper of the steel. Should any water ever find its way into the enclosed space under the ribs, the tinned surfaces resist rusting.
Painstaking striking of ribs, polishing of tubes and lapping of bores create the barrel assembly – the foundation of the gun. Slim, light barrels dictate the need for a correspondingly light and shapely stock to leave a high proportion of the weight of the gun well poised between the hands. This creates that wondrous handling we all covet and enjoy exploiting when we spring into action at the flap of a wing.
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