doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Damascus tubes on British guns made where?

Possibly one of our British correspondents will address Kilby's tube sources.

BTW: I am of the opinion that Parker DID source some tubes from England until the transition from lifters to top lever guns c. 1882
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CGAF5f-J0-Foww572KvNYb0xSS1nBasWgHYvzD18i3c/edit

Drew,
As I think you know, I've been studying Rigby and Powell records for some time. In the case of Rigby, a "barrel book" tracked the source of their tubes. Each page has descriptions of 12 barrels. A tally of two such pages from 1893 has one barrel from Vickers, two from Whitworth and thirteen from Arinen (sp?) - all of which were steel. Damascus tubes included four "plain quality" and four "Crolle 4 Stripes" - all from HL & Cie.

If Powell had a similar book it has been consigned to the 'great gun ledger grave yard in the sky." However, notations concerning barrel material were noted in their day books. They first used "punched Steel" in 1867 - but only for a few years. Damascus tubes were described as Iron Damascus, Stub Damascus, Damascus and Best Damascus. Rifle barrels were made from Laminated Steel.
Whitworth Steel appeared in 1881 and Siemens in 1886. Additionally, I believe Powell was using domestically produced Damascus for most of their barrels because begining in 1885, occasional notations were made that the barrels were from Belgium.

Steve,

Interesting research. In particular is that Siemans was player as early as 1886 in England. They eventually made a big move in Belgium and dominated the fluid barrel market there for almost 10 years.

Was the HL & CIE you mention, HEUSE-LEMOINE & Cie?
http://www.littlegun.be/arme%20belge/artisans%20identifies%20h/a%20heuse%20lemoine%20gb.htm

The Heuse name really dominates all over Nessonvaux.

Pete

PeteM
I assume it was Heuse-Lemoine & Cie.

I'm highly confident that the "Arinen (sp?)" is Annen = Krupp at some point by an acquisition of F. Asoethwer/Asth�wer/Asthowever/Ashtr�mer( Gussstahlwerkes Fritz Asth�wer & Co. ) & Company(Annen Steel Works), Crucible Cast steel works, Annen, Westphalia. Still a chance of error.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annener_Gussstahlwerk

Take a little digging, but it would seem that Annener Gu�stahlwerk/Annen Steel Company, Krupp & Witten were all joined at the hip(pocket-book) at some point?? Note the Witten trademark in the right hand upper corner. Also of most interest is that Heinrich Ehrhardt name surfaces.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

Looks like the British chaps just may have to kneel and pay homage to the German Iron(steel) Horse??? Never know what the composition of your sporting weapon might be?

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

No doubt that Belgium made all the junk barrels...

Maybe it's a learned activity...

As a one time Siemens employee I would like to say that the Siemens in Brit land during the Victorian era was a company founded by William one of the Siemens Brothers who in fact became a British Citizen was knighted by Victoria and is buried here in Westminster abbey. His company was in the business of Electrical communications as it was back then and the manufacturing of under sea communication cables, also the company did manufacture some electrical consumer goods though very few are found today. The business came to an end during the WW1 when the Brit Government sequestrated the Siemens factories and closed the business. Steel manufacturing in industrial quantities was continued by the remaining brothers in Germany and other parts of Europe.