Got a ding on my G grade twist steel barrels and at some point I would like to have the barrels refinished. I'm curious if this damage can be repaired but will leave a blemish that may require blueing the barrels? or can it be acceptably repaired comsetically and allow the barrels to be refinished as original and retain the twist pattern?
Thanks!
http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x300/ggwillia/barrelding.jpg?t=1194911205
The gunsmith will need to see the dent. If the dent is small , blueing is not required. It could be repaired without reblueing it. If the dent is sharp, that s another story.
That's really not a ding, is it? It looks more like a pockmark, a small piece has fallen out of the barrel. A ding would be impressed and could be raised but this doesn't look like material was moved into the barrel, it looks missing.
FWIW I have a damascus barreled English gun with something similar, but much smaller, just ahead of the chamber and it passed reproof without a problem, in fact they asked me if I wanted it proofed for 2-3/4".
That is correct Rob, there is a divot of material missing. I currently shoot the gun with low pressure loads so the repair would be purely cosmetic. Would this material have to be replaced with some sort of welding?
I imagine that would be the only way to do it but I don't know if that can be done to damascus. TIG welding is what most use to fill pitting on receivers and such, perhaps it can be done to damascus. Yours looks to be in the chamber area so make sure whoever you get knows their stuff.
When refinishing Damascus barrels like yours, the pattern should probably be black and white. My experience is the black part of the refinishing tends to hide some pocks or pits and you will have to look twice to see it. Your barrels seem to have quite a bit of finish on them, so if they were mine, I would do nothing.
From what I see in the pic, it appears to me that the barrel suffered a good whack on a pointy rock or something, the "dent" portion of the damage may have raised and the remaining crater edges were filed down flush, leaving the "divot". That's my longdistance picture assessment anyway.
From the looks of the barrel finish in this area, nearly no original finish remains, just some patina. It also appears that the divot is very shallow. I doubt that removing it by filing will significantly reduce strength. If it is very shallow, I wouldn't bother with the TIG welding, just have whoever refinishes the barrels drawfile it out.
I would contact Keith Kearcher, Bend, OR.
Some years ago he repaied a dent in a Parker D grade damascus for us and did an unbelieveable job.
Got home this evening and measured the depth of the dent with my micrometer and it's about .020 inches deep. The dent is 2.5 inches from the face of the chambers. I'll have someone look at it of course but do you think this is too deep to file away? BTW, I think you nailed what happened to it Chuck. After looking at it closer it looks like it has been filed it down.
I think Keith is a good answer to this . 2 1/2" in front of the chamber is an odd place to have a dent as that is almost the thickest part of the barrel. Maybe others see it, but I don't see , in the photo, the evidence of filing.
As I said I have a barrel with the same sort of imperfection but smaller. I have often wondered if when damascus gets old if it can get brittle, perhaps in the initial process some slag gets wound in and falls out later. I see that your barrel has a smaller crater off to the right that, I think, was hardly caused by a dent.
Rob
Daryl,
Like Chuck, it looks to me like it recieved a lick from a rock or someother hard object that raised some material that was filed down flush with the barrel. Not great resolution but you can see the light areas around the dent that looks like it was filed.
http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x300/ggwillia/barrelding1.jpg?t=1195000896
If you take these barrels to a good barrel finisher, they would polish this out as much as possible, no need to weld anything, I brown barrels and blue in the uk,I will do them for you f.o.c if you cover postage. just to show you how nice these old guns can look. when I rebrown I dont always take off all the marks, there is no point having a gun with new looking barrels if the rest of the gun is only 6/10. I have seen keith kearchers work and it is excellent, he is especially good at the black and white finish.