Found Pete's post
(72 pages back
)
I was recently reading Claude Gaier's "Four Centuries of Liege Gunmaking". He sheds some light on the connection between US and Belgian firms.
Ernest Heuse-Lemoine, 1834-1926, from Nessonvaux was a major force in the Vesdre Valley for barrel making. He maintained agents in London, Birmingham, and New York. In addition his firm supplied the Belgian royal court. Apparently, every 3 years he would travel aboard. When he returned, he was met with a band. People would celebrate his return because he always came back with more work orders than his own firm could handle. He would farm out the work to smaller firms.
Gaier states that he supplied damascus barrels for at least 50 years to the US market. He believes Heuse-Lemoine invented the terms, Boston and Washington damascus especially for the American market.
