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Jim,
Babbitt is an alloy (white metal) with a low melting point similar to or lower than solder. It has several different formulas, according to who made it, but the trick of it is, casting it around the barrel to get an exact taper to grip it with. I think Brownell's sells it too, or they used to, in bars. You can easily melt it in a lead pot, then pour it into a mold. It was designed to be poured into molds with pillow blocks to form bearings for line shafting. It's really good for split bushings in barrel vises.
On the wooden blocks, you just need them big enough, and with enough surface area to not slip, and adding rosin helps this. I drill them to a size for the smallest diameter of the barrel I want to grip, then taper them with a sanding drum, or a, adjustable taper reamer, which leaves a coarse cut behind. Once done, I split them in two with a band saw.
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