doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Belgian barrels, fine steel vs. best rolled steel

I have an old Belgian hammer gun that was given to me marked "best rolled steel." It looks like fluid steel to me. I have also found one as a parts donor marked "fine steel." I haven't been able to handle the gun, the owner says it is damascus. I have only seen pictures, but I can see no pattern at all in the steel.

I think these are probably both fluid steel barrels. Does anyone know what those designations mean for sure?

Thanks,
CHAZ

In the absence of an International Commission on the Nomenclature of Fluid Steel Shotgun Barrels folks called their barrels whatever they wanted - and certainly the marketing fellas got involved.

Just a few examples:
L.C. Smith - Armor, London, Crown, Nitro
Parker - Titanic, Acme, Vulcan, Parker Special Steel
Lefever - Dura-Nitro, Royal Nitro, and Premier Nitro Steel.
J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co. Model 270 was listed with Nitro steel.
Tobin doubles were fitted with Trojan Nitro Steel and DeMoya Fluid Steel
Folsom/Crescent American Gun Co. "Midget Field Model" was listed with Nitro steel barrels but most were Armory steel, as were A.J. Aubrey/Meriden Fire Arms.
Some Sears tradename guns in the 1908 catalog had Wilson's Crystal Steel, and the 1897 catalog included a single barrel with 'rolled steel'
http://books.google.com/books?id=pavHOWOWKEEC&pg=PA524&lpg
Baker Gun & Forging - Ho mo-tensile, Flui-Tempered, Holland Special Steel.

And all the tubes were made in Belgium
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=17ixogftgITEblNUWtmFBv96ZvgjK6eFell8GsAWd-KI

There was a call here and the PGCA site in 2005 "Contribute Junk To Advance Barrel Strength Knowledge" with the hope of obtaining vintage barrel samples for composition and strength testing. I spoke with a gentleman about 2008 who unfortunately had abandoned his plans because of health problems. To know if there is any actual difference in all these tubes, a bunch of barrels would need to be sacrificed.

Anyway - if you think the barrels are twist or damascus, dab white vinegar on a soft cloth and scrub a small area underneath the forearm and a pattern should appear

Chaz,

According to one the curators at a museum in Belgium, he guestimated that 90%+ of all fluid steel coming out of Belgium was produced by Cockerill. As for terms used, they where just marketing hype.

The majority of info about steel formulation comes from Krupp. I am sure Raimey has a better grasp of that than I do.

I donated a good number of barrels to that project....

Pete

Really stupid question, are "rolled steel" and fluid steel the same thing?
CHAZ

Yes

Pete