Originally Posted By: battle
This Ken dude shouldnt be anywhere near a sxs barrel.


Do you have any personal experience on the subject, or, are you simply down in the peanut gallery, running your yap?

Ken did the barrels of a Nitro Special for me, several years ago:



At that time, I had really won the gun in an online auction by accident, making a bid of $257 for a gun with barrels that had fuzzy rust on the exterior. The rest of the gun, including the bores, looked like it had never been out of the box. I approached Ken about bluing the barrels. He was honest, said he was just starting, still learning, and he would try his best, and return them as soon as he could. He didnt have them for an entire month, and he was guilty of only asking permission to take them to 600 grit. I said absolutely not, we already had a bunch of guys refinishing barrels here on the board who thought American hardware stores guns should have London best reblue work on the barrels, and it looks like a candy tangerine paint job on a model A Ford, as far as I am concerned. 320 was about where the factory stopped, and where I told him to stop.

The very faint LLH marks from the tube supplier were still there, same as when I sent the tubes. ALL the markings on the barrel were preserved as well as they had been applied at the factory:



The gun has been in the hands of several knowledgeable double gun guys, NONE of them have spotted it as a reblue, and one argued with me that I was wrong, he didnt feel it had ever been reblued. It is as good as factory work was on these guns, and looks totally original. The cost was about half of what anyone else was charging at the time. The Nitro is not a valuable gun, but, I got better than I paid for.




I cant speak for anyone else, but Ken was more than fair to me. I know nothing about Damascus barrel finishing, save that I do not now and never will need a set of Damascus barrels refinished. If I had a barrel that needed a blue, Ken would get it.

Best,
Ted