doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Damascus explained

Oh yeah... I have the remains of Harry O Dean's files and unpublished manuscripts...He was a gun writer for several gun magazines after WW II ...and big Newton enthusiast/researcher/writer and for what ever the reason he was also photographer for Marlin, Ithaca, Savage Fox, Crossman and others. I got the manuscripts and negatives, but unfortunately all the factory photos were stolen by Joe Reece and the "high tech burglary gang" along with Charles Newton's personal Austrian drilling marked Fred Adolph, Genoa New York. The gun can't be missed as it has a gold C N cypher where the top lever should be. There's a picture of the gun in his files. They stole Harry's entire collection from his widow a few weeks after he died.

Many thanks to those of you who suggested Keith Kearcher to my younger brother. His Greener G60 (he found the grade marking not on the trigger guard but on the fore end iron) just back today from having had his barrels refinished, sighting ivory bead replaced, ebony diamond insterts restored, stock glass bedded and action tightened up. Keith measured the minumum bore wall thickness at .035. I think this one will be a good shooter for many years to come.

I'll leave it to my brother to post more photos, here is a photo of his damascus. Keith turned the gun around in record time (under 4 weeks). I think these barrels are the highly prized three iron. My brother just got the Greener book and wonders if these are the silver, stub, or other version of Greener's damascus.

Kearcher would certainly know, but they look like high grade Bernard. When was the Greener made?

Rev-

Thanks. Another member based on the SN dated it to the late 1880s.

Doug

Well... turn of the century Parker catalogs state their damascus is hammered and turned, which doesn't support my belief that most skelp barrels were rolled onto the mandrel rather than hammered inch by inch. Of course the catalog makes no attempt to clarify that they don't actually make the barrels, they simply purchase them from various sources (on a far away continent), which makes the process way beyond their control. So I'm not buying it...but here is the data for anyone wishing to add to their damascus files.

Robert- that's where the quote on the 'Damascus Barrels' PictureTrail album intro page originated
"These fine barrels are not worked and twisted so neatly and nicely that they may look beautiful alone, but rather for the reason that greatest lightness, combined with greatest durability, may be produced." (from the 1899 Parker Bros. catalog)

I'd like to add a few more interesting/meaningful quotations if anyone has a good one.

rev...sorry to re-hash ground that has already been covered...I was hoping to have something new for you...
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not that these qoutes will relate to your damascus picture trail, but they have always been my favorites...
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taken from a sign in Harry Pope's shop
"If you must know when your gun will be done, the answer is now. Take it when well done, or take it elsewhere"
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then this not so good gunshop sign
"Gunsmithing is a lot like oats. Premium oats will command a premium price, but oats once through the horse do come a little cheaper"

The white is iron and the dark is steel. Did we not decide it was opposite just the other day?

Yes, the Parker catalog was one of the sources of my original confusion-but per other sources, Dale Edmonds, and Dr Gaddy- it's IRON turns BLACK and STEEL turns WHITE.

So does it stand to reason that the barrels with the most steel (white swirl) in them are the superior barrels and thus, the percentage of white the barrel, a fair indication of the quality of a damascus barrel; or is there anything good about having iron in a barrel?

It would appear that in the Greener photo I posted above, there is a lot of steel in those barrels (is this an example of the famous 70% Birmingham damascus...actually it looks like it might have a bit more than 70% white swirl)?