Editor’s Note: In past issues The Artilleryman has featured some of the longtime artillery businesses such as the Paulson Bros., South Bend Replicas and Cannons Ltd. In observance of its 10th anniversary, Steen Cannons submitted the following article.
In 1993 Marshall Steen purchased an old Federal-style house in Ashland, Ky., and thought that a Civil War cannon would be the ideal finishing touch for the house.
Being interested in the Civil War since he was 9 years old, he looked into purchasing an original cannon and found out right away that it was going to cost more than he could afford. Next, he looked into reproduction cannons and decided to build his own.
Having been an avid woodworker for years he knew he would not have any problems with the carriage, but the barrel would be a problem.
Ashland is a heavy industrial area. There are several foundries and machine shops within a 50-mile radius. After making several phone calls, meeting with several people, and looking at barrels and hardware made by cannon companies in the industry, he was ready to make his first cannon — a model 1841 6 pdr. in cast iron.
Steen had read books about the different methods of making cannon barrels and decided that making one from a solid casting, then drilling out the barrel and inserting a sleeve was the best method as opposed to casting around a sleeve like some companies do.
He enjoyed making his first cannon so much that he decided to start building more of them as a hobby business. The rest is history. The first cannon that Steen built didn’t last long in front of his house; it was sold to a movie company that was making “One Man’s Hero” starring Tom Berenger.
Marshall Steen is a third generation funeral director. He says he grew up in a business that demands special skills in dealing with people. He feels it is important to listen to people’s concerns and always try to answer questions to the best of his ability.
The Steen family has operated the leading funeral home in the Ashland area because of the excellent service they provide. Marshall Steen says, “I think that this is the most important part in running a business, that is, giving good service and making sure your customer is satisfied.”
This philosophy continued when Steen decided to reopen a paint store that had been out of business for over a year. When he met with the parent company to talk with them about the reopening, Steen knew very little about the paint business, but within the first year the store had become the number one dealership in Kentucky. When he sold the store it had been the top dealership every year and was the eleventh largest in the nation.
“I think the success I had in the paint business was because I had a great product, but most of all I gave great service. When people had a problem, I took the time to discuss it with them and if that wasn’t enough, I went out to the house and looked at the problem myself,” he says.
It was not long after building his first cannon that Steen contracted with Bill Lupton, a pattern maker who had been building cannons for more than 50 years, to start making patterns for all of the hardware needed for the carriage work and several barrels that he thought would be the better sellers.
Using detailed plans purchased from Don Lutz of Antique Ordnance Publishers, Steen was ready to expand into something bigger than just a hobby business.
“When I decided to take this hobby to the next level, I wanted to offer more than just a good product,” he says. “There are many companies that make nice looking cannon, but I want my cannons to be an exact replica of the original.”
As an example, he says, “When the drawing shows two threads per inch on the elevation screw, I want my cannons to have two threads per inch. When the specifications of an ammunition box say, and I quote, ‘the two ends and two sides are to be made of black walnut, cherry, or beech,’ that’s what I want to use, not oak, or maple.
“If it calls for eight dovetails in the corners, I want my box to have eight dovetails, not finger joints like some companies use — dovetails, and eight of them.”
Steen says he finds that some customers ask him questions about procedures and specs because they are concerned about authenticity. He says, “My answer is always ‘We do it like the plans say to do it, nothing more or nothing less.’”
Steen Cannons prides itself in offering the very best quality product and “backs it up in the material and procedures it uses in making cannons,” says Steen.
All the wood for carriages is No. 1 cabinet-grade kiln dried oak, cherry or walnut. All metal hardware that is cast, is cast in 65,000-pound tensile strength ductile iron and any fabricated hardware is made of cold rolled steel. After the wood is assembled and fitted, it receives several coats of material for finishing.
Having been in the paint business, Steen was able to call on special paint laboratories and discuss the best means of treating the wood. He also used guidelines set by the National Paint Institute, an organization that tests all major brands of paint and gives results on which paints and procedures work the best on outside conditions, in coming up with his finished product.
In the end, all wood receives a treatment of copper naphthenate, two coats of boiled linseed oil, a special formulated bonding primer, and two coats of either oil base enamel or 100 percent acrylic finish.
Steen says all of their metal castings are ground and sanded smooth so no casting seams are visible. “Then we apply two coats of a high index red oxide rust inhibitive primer and two coats of glass black enamel. This is why we can say that our carriages and limbers are made to the best possible standards.”
In today’s market, labor is the most expensive part of any job, and Steen could cut costs, but this would mean eliminating some of the steps Steen feels are important in producing a high quality end result. “I have always felt that people don’t mind to spend the extra amount of money to get the best, if they can see value in the product they are paying extra for,” he says. “It’s like the old saying, good things aren’t cheap and cheap things aren’t good.”
All of Steen Cannons’s patterns are made about three-quarters of an inch larger than the original dimensions. The reason for this, Steen explains, is that original barrels were lathe turned during that period and you get a much nicer barrel if it has been fully machined.
All barrels are also cast solid. Steen says that when he first started in the business, he read articles in The Artilleryman magazine written by Matt Switlik about barrels that were cast around a core or a sleeve. He decided to go with the solid cast method.
After the barrels are cast and drilled, they are sent to a company that fully machines the outside of the tubes on computerized lathes that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The advantage of using such high-tech equipment is the finished product.
Steen Cannons machines their trunnions on computerized milling machines so that the end product is exact to the original dimensions. Some of Steen Cannons’s work could be done in-house, but Steen says the quality would not be the same as what is being done on a million-plus dollars worth of equipment.
“When I get a barrel back from the company that does our work, the barrels are flawless and are true to the original dimensions,” he says.
Steen Cannons uses a special process in installing a liner so that it self centers itself in the bottom of the barrel and any alignment only has to be done at the muzzle end. They always use a minimum of 85,000-pound tensile strength liner for their barrels.
When it comes to bronze barrels, Steen has special patterns that have a spur or dead head on the end of the pattern. The barrels are cast in a vertical position where all of the gases and impurities rise and collect at the top where the deadhead or spur is located. In the machining process this portion is cut off and the result is a flawless solid cast barrel. The bronze barrels are then machined the same as the cast iron barrels.
Because the bronze barrels do not receive a liner, Steen has all bronze barrels X-rayed for proof. Then they are brought back to the shop and are finished, sanded and polished to a mirror finish. All of Steen Cannons’s barrels come with a copper vent and are full bore except for the Mountain Howitzer in cast iron; it comes with a 3.67-inch bore, the largest cast iron Mountain Howitzer bore in the industry.
One new procedure that Steen Cannons started this year is stamping the barrels with reproduction stamps made from rubbings of original barrels. Steen says, “Having been in the funeral business, I used to go out to cemeteries and take rubbings off tombstones for the monument company so they could match original lettering.
“When I decided to have stamps custom made, I would go out into the battlefield and find the best original barrels and take rubbings off the trunnions and muzzle and then have stamps made that looks exactly like the originals. If we didn’t stamp our name on the bottom of our barrels, a person would have a hard time determining if our barrels were original or reproduction.”
In 1999, Steen Cannons decided to start producing metal gun carriages. Steen met with personnel at a few of the national battlefields to discuss current carriages being made out of aluminum and the old cast iron carriages that were made in the early 1900s. After many discussions Steen decided to make carriages out of ductile iron.
Steen says, “There is not a carriage that is going to be totally maintenance free. For example, aluminum does not rust but it does corrode. In examining several aluminum carriages, you can look at where the paint has come off and there is a white powder on the metal. Also, when put in contact with steel or iron, it produces a galvanic corrosion.”
He says that ductile iron has twice the tensile strength as aluminum. Strength was a major factor when he went with ductile iron. “A lot of carriages set out in cemeteries or in secluded spots in battlefields are subject to vandalism. One advantage of ductile iron is it can usually take a lot of abuse from vandals and if something is broken, ductile iron can be usually repaired by conventional welding methods.”
He also found that in the old cast iron carriages, the wheels were hollow. “We cast our wheels solid so that no water can enter the inside of the wheel and cause corrosion from the inside out or allow water to freeze in the winter time and cause the wheel to crack.”
Steen says that his company was the only one making a true No. 2 and No. 3 field carriage. “Some companies in order to save cost on patterns use a No. 1 trail, axle and wheel and substitute a No. 2 or No. 3 cheek when the bigger carriages are specified.”
Steen says that when you see a 20-pdr. Parrott rifle on a No. 1 trail, axle and wheel, “its look is a very disproportionate gun carriage.”
The company produces both ductile iron and aluminum gun carriages in all three sizes but Steen says for his money he prefers the ductile iron.
Steen Cannons has done work for many national battlefields, including Vicksburg, Shiloh, Fredericksburg, Petersburg and Richmond, and as mentioned in a recent article of The Artilleryman, Fort Caroline National Memorial in Florida. Steen Cannons has done work for various museums, state capitals and municipalities.
Steen says his cannon barrels continue to stand out in long- range competition, although he gives more credit to the cannoneers aiming and firing the cannons than his barrels; however, he feels that the process he uses in drilling and sleeving his barrels deserves some credit. Among those shooting well are Don Waldrup, who purchased a bronze Napoleon, and Norm Gibson, who purchased a Tredegar Iron Napoleon.
Steen Cannons has eight employees: Marshall Steen, President; Pat Steen, Marshall’s wife; Johnny Waggoner, foreman and machinist; Buck Griffith, carpenter/metal worker; Jerry Howard, chief barrel finisher; Jason Gullett, Marshall’s stepson and chief painter; Travis Frasure and Walter Howard, metal workers.
Steen says that over the years he has received lots of help and information from various people, including some of his competition. In addition to Matt Switlik and Don Lutz, he mentions Wayne Stark, Tom Bailey, Bruce and Bernie Paulson and many of the people in the National Park Service, and Bernie Kurdt who passed away this year.
“I have come to realize that all of these people and others not mentioned that have crossed my path in this business, love artillery and are willing to help when called upon and are very knowledgeable concerning this field. It has been an honor and a privilege to know these people,” says Steen.
“Our company now has been in business for 10 years and I hope to be here for many more years. I have two sons that I hope will either help me in the funeral business or, even better, the cannon business.”
Steen Cannons is located at 3409 13th St. in Ashland behind the Marshall Steen Funeral Home. Ashland is a Tri-City, with Ironton, Ohio, across the Ohio River and Huntington, W.Va., 15 miles away. Steen Cannons has a Web site: www.steencannons.com and Steen is always willing to talk to people at (606) 326-1188.