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I understand where you are coming from surely its worth a test, cut a piece to fit then give it a good welding over, clean up the bore then test rigorously to see if it fails.

I think the danger lies in this scenario - someone carries out this work and your gun is rigorously tested; it may even pass a genuine reproof and you might be happy to risk shooting it.

Joe blogs follows the same method but because of the number of variables in steel composition, quality of the welding, thoroughness of the testing, or any number of the unknown variables in hand his gun blows up and Joe is now "sans hands".

It would be all very interesting and we should push the boundaries in order to see what can be done; but as someone said, just because it can be done doesn't mean it should be done, the danger is people assuming that its worth the risk.

Today i was looking at quite an old barrel which was in a junk lot, the barrel had been cut clean in two with an angle grinder and i couldn't quite work out why someone had done this; under the rust and gunk i found that the last 9 inches of barrel was a butted brazed joint of two separate pieces, its off something quite old with a flared cannon type muzzle and it was probably shot in this condition; but i shouldn't like to.

Brazed repairs to barrels seem to be common workman repairs back in the day, i saw at the gun room quite a nice sidelever hammer gun with good meaty barrels which would have been worth restoring; but the gun room owner turned the gun over in my hand and said "yeah its just a shame about that" pointing to a massive gob of braze over a hole clean through to the bore. Obviously the gun wasn't for sale; it had come with a job lot of others he had bought.

I would never want to make that repair, have it successfully pass proof and then 10 years later and X number of round later it lets go and takes off a hand.

I love the idea of pushing the limits and trying it. Do it, prove it passes some form of proofing, feel good that you could do it. Then sleeve it anyway. Save the tubes or send them to someone that keep them and demonstrate what can be done.

I would not want that weld on my conscience for all the future holds. You never know where that gun might end up, who might shoot it and what they put in it.

Jason

+1 to this.

Damascus barrels are nice but there are still hundreds of good guns to be had.

That being said, every gun repair that was ever tried for the first time carried with it the risk of failure. Academically i would like to see it done and tested to destruction.

The metals used in the braze will not have the same qualities as the original barrel steel and is the weak link in the chain.
How much trust would you put into it when there are a few tons per square inch pressure subjected to it every time the barrel is fired.
If I'm honest, it upsets me every time I see a lovely pair of Damascus barrels that are past their best and have to be scrapped but the truth is, when they're finished, they're finished.

Well a lot of interesting input on this. I have to say parts of me agree with every view expressed (Does that mean I'm schizoid? ).Fundamentally though I'm biased to the scientific test viewpoint - must be my academic training.

I have to admit though that I would not deliberately test "to destruction"; if it passed rigourous over pressure testing I'd be inclined to keep and use it with either planned destruction/sleeving later or marking (engraving under barrels??) noting "history". As to post proofhouse testing that would have to involved multiple firings with multiple measuremnts and testing at the point of repair. Not exactly an economical proposition but I've no desire to be "hoist on my own petard" as it were.

Regarding the hypothetical repair itself, there's a lot of discussion of brazing, just to be clear it would be welded (TIG?) not brazed. I can't see brazing material holding up. There's an excellent chance I'll abandon it as a not particularly viable train of thought, but for now I remain curious about the feasibility. I've yet to see a statement based on something like detailed metallurgical knowledge that it is likely to be extremely dangerous or physically impossible. For example, is it a known fact that TIG welding would create unavoidable areas of weakness in damascus?. Lot's of "gut level" ideas but hard data and testing are always the best way to check ideas.

Thanks for all the opinions and input so far. ' a nice discussion at the bar

Jeremy

P.S. Demonwolf444 - what part of N. Yorks are you in if you care to say? My mother's from Guisborough.

Jeremy: Michael Allee has done some TIG welding repairs of Damascus barrels. You might contact him.
http://www.gunsmithingonly.com/
Shawnee Mission, KS (KC)
913-238-2743

Ill PM You!

They make wonderful lamps.

I wont shoot good? Damascus much less some welded patch job....

Tell the truth jOe; you recommended the gun be used as a tomato stake...Geo