While there are cautions in the article I copied this from inre. to speculation; I thought the information was interesting enough to post here.
Jim
"Eventually the technology to make damascus gun barrels was adopted by European gunmakers. In 1634 Hungarian gunsmith Caspar Hartmann was making guns with damascus barrels for George I Rákóczi, prince of Transylvania. A watershed event occurred in 1683 with the Siege of Vienna. The defeat of Kara Mustafa by Poland's Jan III Sobieski at Vienna resulted in thousands of Ottoman-produced weapons being left on the battle field. Many of these had damascus barrels. By 1700 damascus barrels were being produced at Liege, Belgium. Over time, Liege became the major source for damascus barrels. Damascus barrels were produced by every major gun making center in Europe. The great majority of these barrels were used in shotguns. This usage continued until World War I. After the war, damascus barrels fell out of favor amongst sportsman. By the early 1930s commercial production of damascus barrels had for all practical purposes stopped because stronger, cheaper fluid steel became available after W.W. I."
Last edited by italiansxs; 10/14/09 02:09 PM.
