doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Rifled pattern welded tubes

That damasteel gun was a prototype that never went into production.

Pete

Bailey Bradshaw in Texas has built at least 1 double rifle reciever from damascus that he made in his shop.

It was beautiful and fully functional!

I haven't seen Bailey for two or three years. He used to do all of the major knife shows, but I think he may now be doing mostly custom gun shows. He and I used to have tables next to each other at the Arkansas Knife Show. He always had some beautiful art knives and at least one gun. I knew he was working on a damascus rifle receiver. I have no doubt that he finished it, and it was amazing. He is an incredible artist and is really great about sharing his knowledge with other craftsmen. He helped me with tooling and techniques for doing sculptured knife fittings.

Mathias Novotny Wien percussion single

I realize the tube is in rough shape, but are we looking at the odd pattern or is it odd due to the fact that we are looking at a different cross-section? In looking at the rifling, I assume that there would be different oxidation rates for the 2 metals?

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

That is 'Bernard Loop'; a slightly nicer specimen

Ah, couldn't see the forest for the trees. So you think that is a Bernard tube?

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

Not without this

Always like to see discussions on damascus.

I recently exchanged a couple of emails with Steve Culver on his making of a damascus gun barrel. It looked great and is fully functional.

I've been rolling ideas around my head for an all damascus rifle, including the barrel. It's quite an ambitious project, but I think it needs to be done. Modern steels and cleaner forge welding techniques open up a huge new avenue for firearms.

Damasteel is a great product, but it's not traditionaly forge welded steel. It's make in the powdered metalurgy process so the patterns are limited. I've used it for knives in the past and it is a clean and high quality product, but it will never look like the old damascus.

There is also the advancement of mosaic damascus by many bladesmiths. Some of the blades I have seen were extrememly complex and took weeks to forge the billet they were made from.
No reason an action couldn't be made with a dame scene forged in the steel. Lots of good stuff to explore

Bailey,

I'm anxious to see what you come up with. The idea of using mosaic damascus for an action is intriguing. I am reminded of a hunting scene that Steve Schwarzer welded into a knife blade. This would look great on the sideplates of a shotgun. A similar scene with perhaps a cape buff' would be equally impressive on a double rifle.

The barrel smiths of 100 years ago were the masters of damascus making. Today, it is the knifemakers. The few of us who are interested as much in guns as we are knives, could take firearms embellishment into an entirely new realm.

That's the knife I was thinking of when I mentioned the game scenes. The construction of the scene was done by cutting the elements with a wire edm, slightly tapered so they seated into the female block for easy welding. No lack of skill in reducing the billet with essentially no distortion. Steve Schwarzer did the forging.

There are some hurdles to overcome for the production of a damascus barrel that will have a solid core to produce a rifle barrel capable of modern pressures, but I think it's worth doing. There was a patent for such a barrel issued in 1918 or so.

A mosaic damascus action complimented with damascus fittings would be nice enough, but the same rifle with a new damascus barrel in a modern cartridge would be quite a feather in a makers cap.