Lloyd, while we have photo and video evidence of Damascus Barrel Makers laboriously forge welding barrels one at a time, it seems evident that as time passed, barrel makers were able to find ways to streamline or eliminate a lot of the tedious and time consuming hand labor. The late DoubleGunShop member Pete Mikalajunas, who probably knew more about Damascus barrels than any man alive or dead, explained to us how the process evolved from a couple skilled blacksmiths working small forging operations, to large operations like Laurent Lochet-Habran (LLH) or Heuse-Riga Fils (H.R.F.) being able to economically produce literally millions of Damascus tubes. To a large degree, the small hammers anvils, and forges were replaced by steam and water powered trip hammers and hot rolling mills. It's a crying shame that Pete's Damascus website died when he died.
And BTW we're STILL waiting for one of our British correspondents to find the British Damascus Rosetta Stone
Only if you tell us how Pieper managed to get his name in the pattern
Very simple, he paid the rolling mill to do it! There is a general myth which goes something to the effect that each barrel maker made the pattern. That is simply not the case. The rolling mill would schedule runs of the patterns it had orders for. The barrel smith would pay the mill for the ribbons they needed. The barrel smith would then forge them into complete barrels
This accounts for the volume of damascus barrels produced by the Belgians. At the Curtius Museum (Mus�e Curtius) in Liege are 2 films spliced into one that are constantly running showing the complete process from rolling mill to final gun.
As for Pieper, I am confident he never stood at an anvil in his life.
Pete
![[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]](https://i.postimg.cc/WpxBJ6S4/Screenshot-2023-12-18-at-17-43-15-Word-Damascus-Gun-Barrel-Patterns-pdf.png)
Well, after a lot of negotiating I was able to acquire the 1924 film, as most are aware. I was stunned during my visit last year to discover there is a 1934 version. It shows not only the barrel makers, but also the large slabs of red hot damascus flowing through the rolling mill. There is no way they will discuss releasing that 1934 film.
I did acquire a recent book from Belgium that documents much of this. If my math is close, the billets started out, 4.5 meters long by 1.285 wide by .713 high. This weighed 71 pounds more or less depending on the patterns iron to steel mix. (I have heard that at one time the billets were 2x this size.) After initial rolling it was cut to 50cm (19.6") long by 14cm wide (5.5") by 3.05cm (1.2") high. This secondary billet weighed close to 36 pounds. This would produce approximately 9 barrels. The rolling mill was using approximately 42 tons of pressure.
They had a set monthly schedule for producing various types of damascus. The mill paid a royalty to the patent holder for each pattern. This cost was passed on to the barrel makers. The barrel makers had to place their order for the stock patterns in advance. Special patterns, like "Remington" embedded into the damascus were billed based on time and labor.
Pete
Having spent years working in industrial maintenance and automation, I'm certain that the process could be even further mechanized and automated, with CNC robots stacking billets or lopins, and computer controlled mills and forging presses doing even more of the work of rolling and twisting ribbands. And I am just as confident that we will never see this sort of mass production of Damascus, because it would still be extremely costly in a time when even fluid steel replacement barrels cost five figures, and there just aren't enough of us who appreciate it, or could afford it. I've read that even a farm implement mostly machine made L.C. Smith shotgun had something like a full month of hand labor involved in its' production. And that explains to me why even they have more "soul" than any modern CNC machined and laser engraved gun ever will.
