er off and
cleanser, it is carved, polished, and, if needful, stained.

Common gun barrels are polished or browned to prevent them from rusting, real
Damascus barrels are subjected to a chemical process, which brings out the
fine wavy lines and prevents them from rusting.

All these operations having been performed, the barrel, the lock, and the
stock, are brought back by the respective workmen who have given them the
final touch, and put together by the finisher or gun maker, and this putting
together is as much as many eminent gunmakers ever do. But, by care and good
judgment, they acquire a reputation for which they can charge a handsome
percentage.

For these reasons, with local knowledge, it is possible to obtain from a
Birmingham finisher who keeps no shop, a first-rate double gun at a very low
figure compared with retail prices.

Belgium and Germany compete with Birmingham for cheap African guns, and even
forge the proof marks. Neither in quality nor in price for first-rate
articles can any country compete with us.

* * * * *

SWORDS AND MATCHETTS.--The sword trade of Birmingham is trifling compared with
that in guns. The foreign demand has dwindled away until it has become quite
insignificant, and the chief employment is afforded by our own army and navy.
Nevertheless, good swords are made in Birmingham, which is the only town in
England where any manufacture of the kind exists, although the blades often
bear the names of more fashionable localities.

It is among the traditions of the Birmingham trade, that in 1817, when our
Government was about to transfer its orders for swords to Germany, in
consequence of the inferiority of English swords, a Mr. Gill claimed to
compete for the contract; and that in order to show what he could do, he
appeared before the Board of Ordnance with a sword, which he tied round his
thigh, and then untied, when it immediately became straight. In the end Mr.
Gill was the means of retaining the sword trade in Birmingham.

Sword-grinding is worth seeing. Sword-makers find their principal employment
in producing Matchetts, a tool or weapon very much like the modern regulation
cutlass, but stronger and heavier, with a plain beech-wood handle, worth
wholesale from 6d. to 9d. each. They are used in the East and West Indies,
Ceylon, and South America, for cutting down sugar-canes and similar uses. We
take the name to be Spanish; it is used by Defoe and Dampier. We only
mention