Eugene Joris in 1894 filed a patent in England on the process of twisting rods to form a barrel.
http://damascus-barrels.com/files/GB_189...s_and_Tubes.pdf



Later Florent Heuse-Bovy filed a patent for a machine to do the task.


Whether the Heuse-Bovy machine was ever put into production is still in question. While the it does not state so, I believe part labeled #23 is actually a water spout to control / freeze the twisting.

In operation, it would have looked something like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQTobu6Ah...=PL&index=1

Pete

http://www.damascus-barrels.com/Movie.html