I really let most threads like this just pass into the bit bucket. However, there are so many myths....
No one "flooded" the American market place. Those guns were made at request of American companies and stamped with their house brand.
If you read the Congressional Records of the day, there were complaints of unfair business practices because the labor rate in Belgium was cheaper. The joke is the American companies complaining the loudest often times employed women and children in their factories. I have yet to read a complaint concerning buyer safety because of poor manufacturing.
Again, the companies complaining the loudest had sweetheart deals with off shore makers to provide them with damascus barrels. After WWI, the American steel industry needed a market for their increased production, hence the cry about damascus. Also, the metallurgy got better. We had learned how to keep sulfur and silicone out of the steel. Finally, the cost of labor increased. Small communities like Nessonvaux were turned from their centuries of gun making into auto production.
Regarding the proof house speculation. You do realize that those at the proof house were government employees! They risked imprisonment for taking a bribe. Before we get into, "Well it could have happened", simply show me 1 documented example.
I own 30 guns with damascus barrels. I shoot 29 of them. The one I do not shoot, is because I consider the barrel too thin at the chamber. If others choose not to shoot damascus, that is fine with me.
Pete
Last edited by PeteM; 09/28/13 07:55 PM.
