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I was having a look at a P14 at auction the other week. On the right side of the foresight in line with the barrel were engraved the words "Ball Polished". Anyone know what this signifies?

A very conscientious soldier, perhaps?

It refers to a barrel smoothing process.

Ball burnished was a common thing on military rifles , I had a couple of Enfields with "ball burnished " barrels .

We googled 'ball polishing' and wish we hadn't. GCHQ listened in and our case comes up at the Magistrate's Court tomorrow morning....

dromia wrote:It refers to a barrel smoothing process.

waterford103 wrote:Ball burnished was a common thing on military rifles , I had a couple of Enfields with "ball burnished " barrels .

So one question leads to more. Who by? Why? And what's involved?

It looked like it had been used for target shooting, having a target swivel in front of the mag, but had the original volley sights present, wish I had bid on it now.

legs748 wrote:

dromia wrote:It refers to a barrel smoothing process.

waterford103 wrote:Ball burnished was a common thing on military rifles , I had a couple of Enfields with "ball burnished " barrels .

So one question leads to more. Who by? Why? And what's involved?

It looked like it had been used for target shooting, having a target swivel in front of the mag, but had the original volley sights present, wish I had bid on it now.

Likely candidates would be Parker-Hale, AGP or one of the other post war Enfield target specialists that targetised war-surplus rifles etc.

Have seen a number of 'targetised' SMLE/No.4 with ball-burnished target barrels fitted etc.

I've always assumed that 'ball burnishing' was used to obtain the same results as hand-lapping or 'lead-lapping' in modern custom barrels from outfits like Krieger, Bartlein, GB Barrels etc., in fact would be more valuable in those days.

Even with the very careful boring and then painfully slow rifling process that is done in a modern cut-rifled match barrel, there are tiny tool marks left all over the machined surfaces. Lapping smooths them out and aids barrel run-in and also gives a more uniform bore diameter the entire barrel length. Given that these were selected service rifles / components, barrel interiors were likely a lot rougher off the machinery, so 'burnishing' would be a valuable process, although whether as good as hand-lapping by an experienced operator?

meles meles wrote:We googled 'ball polishing' and wish we hadn't. GCHQ listened in and our case comes up at the Magistrate's Court tomorrow morning....

It was done by Parker Hale. I cannot remember the whole process but you will find it in one of their catalogues 1950s to 60s.r