I recently picked up a bunch of the older Double Gun Journals and have been reading through issues I haven't seen before. I specifically looked up Issue 5 Volume 1 from the Spring of '94 to read Keith Kearcher's article on finishing Damascus. It really wasn't of any specific help, outside of hearing that Kearcher worked hard to develop his process and wasn't going to share his knowledge.
There was a very interesting article in that issue "Black and Nitro, Damascus and Steel" by John Brindle. Brindle reviewed a study at the Birmingham Proof House in 1888 where they tested to destruction 3 samples each of 29 different types of barrels. Really interesting stuff. And some really heavy loads needed to destroy some of the barrels. But a couple of questions came to me while reading the article:
1) A couple of the strongest barrels were "English machine forged laminated steel and English machine forged best Damascus". I've never heard of machine forged laminated or Damascus before. Can anyone provide any information on machine forged lamintated or Damascus barrels?
2) Brindle states "We have already seen, too, the difficulties experienced by users of choked Damascus barrels, in the form of bulges in the choke, when the wall thickness in this region of the barrel was insufficient." So that statement has me wondering if I've screwed up by opening the chokes on a couple of my guns with Damascus barrels. Can anyone provide any specific information on that topic?
