I forgot to pose this question as food for thought.

In a visual examination of damascus barrels, what percentages do you see between the colored material brown/black and the white material?

From Greeners The Gun and Its Development
The old fashioned laminated steel was composed of nearly three parts of steel; best English damascus and modern laminate steel contains over 60 percent of steel; and the best silver-steel damascus contains nearly 75 percent of the best worked steel.

(From another paragraph): By using more iron than steel, and keeping to the same arrangement of the metals, a very inferior barrel would result.

Steve Culver
Steve Culver Knives