Varmint Al says you can polish a steel cylinder 'till the cows come home with Flitz and it will not reduce the O.D. enough for you to be able to measure it with a micrometer.
Al was in the Mechanical Engineering department ( as I) who did structural analyisis while at Livermore, but retired before I got to know him well but I have co-workers who knew Al.
Not to discount his views, knowledge or writings, his great graphs and shooting skill and such... The article you refer to was the outside of a rod turned in a lathe.......
JB is a lapping compound, as is Flitz ( albeit I don't know what it is, but I have read it is more agressive than JB for polishing metal) and Al's point is correct on polishing the outside of a bar of steel... the polishing of the inside of a barrel has little to do with what Al wrote..... Or BARREL MAKERS wouldn't lap a new barrel to make it shoot better.....
Just saying your referencing Al's findings was totally opposite it's application in HAND LAPPING a barrel's bore.
Allen
