I always enjoy a "is Damascus safe to shoot" thread. I'm glad to see this one has stayed friendly.
I shoot a Damascus Parker GH 12 gauge without worry. It was manufactured in 1924. Bores are minty and measure as they left the factory. I doubt it saw many blackpowder loads and I doubt Parker made it think it would.
I sometimes get the feeling that many think that Damascus and twist barrels went away because the makers thought they were un-safe.
I have always thought fluid steel ended up being the barrel of choice because they were cheaper to produce. Damascus barrel construction was labor intensive. That, along with a dwindling number of artisans, more likely caused the demise of Damascus barrels; not safety concerns shooting smokeless loads of the day.
The British stopped making damascus in 1903. The Belgian production continued until 1937 / 1938. It was the destruction of the tremendous infrastructure that was required (mainly the rolling mills) that stopped the Belgians.
The demand had been dwindling between the wars as better steel became available for sporting gun use. Also many makers started declaring the own earlier guns unsafe. Articles started appearing in various sporting publications denouncing damascus without any mention of the pressures.
One of the major issues with damascus was WW1. It killed so many men in N. Europe and destroyed the apprentice system that labor prices went crazy after the war and that doesn't count the physical plant destruction.
If you have documented figures to back that up, I would like to see them. I believe the labor costs rose because of the increased social consciousness in Belgium about child labor (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Daens ) and the guild seeking collective bargaining (eg the Lochet strike of 1912). The makers were paying the same piece rate in 1912 that they had paid in the 1880's. The makers tried to starve the guilds out of existence, but the general public reacted by taking in the children of striking workers to feed them.
http://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=65846&page=22 And here Ithaca promotes the myth of rust, never mentioning the pressures involved.
Pete
