Member's Area - Machining & Subclass -
Manufacturing Methods - Grinding

Reduced Potential for Subclass Carryover

Grinding – Removing material from a work piece with a grinding wheel or abrasive belt.

The tool marks displayed by a grinder appear as striated marks on the work piece due to the rotation of the grinding wheel.  If potential subclass characteristics are seen or suspected, individual characteristics will typically still be present which will be caused by use/abuse, a finishing process, rust, or any other event that causes random imperfections to be created on imparted on the work piece.

**Particular attention, however, should be given to grinding in terms of hammer forged barrels.  Some manufacturers will use mandrels that are shaped using a grinder that will leave a repeating pattern. The rifling in barrels created using these mandrels will potentially display the same pattern, thus qualifying as subclass characteristics. Therefore, bullets fired through these barrels MAY display a similar striated pattern.  Any individual characteristics imparted on the bullet surface fired through these barrels will be from another source.