I found this unusual manufacturing fix on this 3.8" James shell I cleaned for a forumite. The shell was in pretty good shape when I got it but the owner wanted the surface rust removed so it would display better and he gave the OK to post the pics here to share with everyone. What is interesting is the two large patches of what appears to be lead used to fill, I presume, some casting flaws. The James are typically so well made that you would not expect even a small casting flaw. They seem to have good quality metal nice crisp casting. We've drilled quite a few James shells and know the metal to be of good quality. but it seems on this example that there were some pocket areas that someone decided needed filled. Not sure how deep the fills are but they did a very good job filling them. I've seen on a few CS Read shells and cannon balls where some lead was used to fill a spot but never anything this big. Anyone else seen something like this?
How about that nice slider nipple in the fuse hole?
