Here are some early examples.... A Greener Pinfire. I suspect a few horse nails got used here.






This maybe the oldest European produced damascus example that I have seen so far. A French double flintlock. On this gun Etienne, Brevette, 1000 Francs and Morian all appear. I believe the only way to truly date this example is by the locks.







Notice the "lack of control" in both examples. The later Greener gun showing more "control" than this very early (circa 1790) French gun. But neither shows the control that we see in last quarter of the 19th century nor the extreme control that is achieved in the early 20th century, when names could be incorporated in the welding.

The French gun has very obvious Islamic influence in the production of the damascus. They did not have the same sources of steel as the Islamic makers did, so they adapt the technology. While not on a par with high end Islamic produced damascus, (better, ie, more technically refined barrels had been produced in India at least 100+ years earlier) this is still a very respectable effort.

I am still searching for the "turning point". The point at which carefully arranged billets of known material are arranged and worked to produced a specified product. The exact "turning point" may be lost to history.

Pete