Any educated opinions as to which alternee is steel and which iron? I'm thinking the blue-grey is steel and brown-grey iron?
My thoughts; based on observations from my work.....
Hot rolled steel always has a bluish mill scale on it. So, I would assume the blue-gray layers are steel. The wrought iron having a silica content, may inhibit formation of mill scale. Thus, the simple red rust surface on it.
As someone who makes a lot of damascus steel, it is most common to place the low carbon element on the outer layers of the billet. The outer layers come to heat the quickest and will be at a temperature that can burn out carbon for a longer period of time. High carbon materials are placed inside the billet, where they are protected from the deoxidizing atmosphere in the forge.
I have raw wrought iron in my shop. I am willing to send a piece to anyone who wishes to test finishing of it. And/or, I will weld up a sample of wrought iron and steel damascus for testing. The only question will be whether the samples that I provide will be representative of the materials used in damascus barrels. I have some 1002 steel in my shop. It may be close to what was used in barrels.
