doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Rem 1900 Fake Damascus?

French (also fausse) for 'falsehood' or 'forgery'

Lennart,

You are correct. Faux is French for false. It can also mean forgery.

There was a rash of Faux Damascus in the late 19th century. The guns were marketed as Damascus barreled. The better makers and the Belgian government stepped in and created laws that prevented any barrels from being marked Damascus or Twist that were actually not. The deeper issue was that these cheap imitations had cold rolled steel barrel with a longitudinal welded seam. When these seams would give, which they did very often, the barrel would split down the length. Not very good for consumer relations. Damascus on the other hand will not fail in this manner. So, it was considered a safer barrel, that people would pay more to have on their guns.

You are located in Sweden? Sweden produced a lot of iron for the gun industry during this period. They had a speciality run for the damascus barrel makers, until the market for damascus declined.

Pete

I was at Mike Ehinger's yesterday and brought up the subject of
the Westley Richards Barrells. Mike said he put his hame on the
barrells stating they were replacement False Demascus Finish-not sure of the exact words he put on the barrells. Drake wanted him
to do this. If this was my gun I would want his name on it -
The Quality of his work greatly enhances the Value of the gun
In my opinion.
Reguards
Bill McPhail

I'd be very interested in how Mike did the new faux finish and how the original JABC faux Damascus finish was done.

I had heard some of the Faux Damascus finshes done in the late 1800's were done more as a selling point than in trying to hide an inferior barrel.
I wish I had gotten pictures of the Greener Hammer gun my friend sold at Friendship a few weeks back...it had Faux finished Damascus barrels on it...maybe the guy that bought it is a reader ?

It has been my understanding that the reason for the phony Damascus finishes on the early solid barrels was because some shooters didn't trust the "new" barrels to be as strong as the Damascus they were used to. And indeed, there was some truth to the fear as some of the early solid barrels were in fact, inferior to the better-made Damascus and twist barrels of the day. (That might be the same thing Joe said. Not sure)