Today, rifles are made with exacting precision ... With the help of a primitive hand-cranked lathe, the barrel is then bored out and eventually rifled with the help of a cutting tool that is ...

I admired my late father’s skills as a tinsmith. I was amazed at what he could do with sheet metal, aluminum and copper. I took a different path, but in my teens, I was his “helper” in his sheet ...

KURE, Hiroshima Prefecture--A massive lathe used to precision shape the main gun barrels of Japan’s mighty World War II battleship Yamato is now on public display at the Kure Maritime Museum here.