The Thick & Thin of Hensley & Gibbs 4 Cavity Moulds

[Texasflyboy]

I finally got a chance to post a new article on the different thickness handles/mould slots on Hensley & Gibbs 4 cavity handles.

Here is the article posted at the Hensley & Gibbs Mould reference website:

The Thick & Thin of Hensley & Gibbs 4 Cavity Handles (http://hgmould.gunloads.com/casting/thickthin.htm)

As soon as I can complete my research on the two cavity handles, (of which there are also two styles, thick and thin) I will post the companion article there also.

[FISH4BUGS]

Tom: Thanks for all your work on H&G Moulds. You have made this guy a casting snob. I can appreciate the fine workmanship of these moulds and man do they cast wonderfully!
I hope that 10 cavity 9mm mould is working out. I saw the video you posted. It's nice to know one of those is my old one!
Keep up the great work.

[AKtinman]

Hi Tom:

What a timely post! I recently bought a 4 cavity #9 Geo. A. Hensley mold which also has the "wood screw" type screws. This mold does not have the "prick" or "witness" marks like yours has. The sprue plate is pretty thin compared to my other 4 cavity H&G's. Neat old mold.

I've been looking for a #9 or 358344 for some time, though for no good reason other than curiosity about the particular bullet shape.

I must have had a brain stall when I sold you the #43 and #503S! They couldn't have gone to a better home, though.

Thank you for all your research on the H&G history. It is fascinating, and much appreciated.

Regards

Ron

[Texasflyboy]

Thanks Ron. Glad to see you finally made it to Texas. Give me a shout next time you're in my part of the piney woods.

:-D

Tom

[Bret4207]

Nice job on that site. I only own 1 H+G, a 10 cav #50, but it's a beaut!

[fecmech]

Flyboy--I noticed from the pics that the thick handle molds were from Oregon and the thin ones from San Diego, It could'nt be that simple could it ? BTW I have 3,4 cav H&G moulds, a "matched Pair" of #39's and a #50, these are San Diego molds with .250 handles. All were given to me by a friend who was a commercial reloader back in the 50's that made his own bullets. He used two 4 cavity molds, a fan for cooling the blocks, and a plumbers pot to feed the Saeco 10lb pot he used for casting. He said his casting rate was 2 thousand an hour and using the star sizer he sized at about the same rate. I believe him as he was the kind of person that could pretty much do what he said he could. Those H&G molds are the best IMO, a real joy to cast with.

[Texasflyboy]

Flyboy--I noticed from the pics that the thick handle molds were from Oregon and the thin ones from San Diego, It could'nt be that simple could it ?

No, It probably can't be that simple. Hensley & Gibbs wasn't an ISO 900x operation, towards the end, Hensley and Gibbs was...Wayne Gibbs. Based on my years of research, I've seen nothing that would indicate that Wayne, his dad, or George Hensley followed any sort of rigid numbering, or manufacturing scheme that was standardized. It appears to me that moulds were made, as perfect as possible, in that moment of time, and then they moved on to the next mould. Over time, dimensions changed, as did the markings, and handles. In one of the articles on the website, it discusses George making from scratch all the cherries, by hand.

To my great surprise I recently discovered variations within mould designs. I recently traded for a #115 mould, a 9mm Lead Round Nose at about 125 grs. I already owned one in 10 cavity, and the new one was also 10 cavity. I *assumed* they were identical since they were both #115's.

I cast about 4,000 bullets with both, and didn't notice until I started loading that there was a slight, but noticeable variation in the design between the two moulds. The difference was obvious, the two cherries used to cut the moulds were made 10 years apart, and differed slightly. One driving band was well formed and thicker, the other driving band was flatter and thinner. Hard to see on the mould, but easy to see on the cast bullets. One mould cast bullets that weighed an average of 123.0 grains, the other average weight was 124.5. Less than .01 grain variation between cavities on each mould, but the two moulds were 1.5 grains apart due to differences in the two cherries.

Which is why Hensley & Gibbs offered to make a matched pair of moulds from the same cherry at the time of mfg. My mistake was forgetting this bit of trivia. The odds of a mould being made perfectly identical 10 years apart is next to impossible, and perfectly understandable given the setup of Hensley & Gibbs.