DMacLeod:
I didn't catch it right off that the Kirkwood was a previous post. Both Laminated and Damascus are pattern welded tubes. Maybe it is just semantics, but there are differences depending on whose definition you use. The short of it from W.W. Greener is that Damascus has 3 rods and Laminated has 2.
The long of it which is probably a pre-"Gunnery in 1858" definition is to take "mild steel scraps" from saws, pen making, coach springs and tools and polish them in a drum until shiny. Using an air furnace, much like the Sir Henry Bessemer process, fuse the parts together in a bloom. Then commence whaling on it with a 3 ton forge tilt hammer making a large square bar which is to experience the rolling mill in reducing to the desired size. Bundle and weld a number of the processed rods together and let them experience the rolling mill once again. The resulting rods will be giving to the barrel makers who will fab the tubes.
A text of Gunnery in 1868, which didn't materialize due to W. Greener's death, can be found in "Modern Breech Loaders"(circa 1870) which refers to the following method as "modern plan". Bundle in an alternating pattern 6 iron and 6 steels bars of the same size, weld them and send them thru the rolling mill reducing their size. The result is a set of square bars that will be supplied to the barrel welders. For some reason, W.W. Greener notes that the lot can be "converted into damascus" by using a head of a "kind of lathe" which is fixed on one end.
Rule of thumb: Laminated usually doesn't have the fine detail as Damascus.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
Last edited by ellenbr; 05/18/08 11:26 PM.
