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Thanks Niklas, the book is not digitized, but here is an interesting review
http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.cgi?path=14612892079456

Drew,

You got me to open up Gaier's big work once again. He has picture of flintlock pistol. The picture is a small black and white image. But I am sure that barrel is damascus. It was produced in Liege, 1730 by Florkin. It is in the Arms Museum in Liegge, MAL 5209 Ad8.

I did another search of the Liege Museum of Arms and found this.
BAVIÈRE, 16th Century


So that is the earliest so far. From Liege, some time in the late 1500's.

Pete

Thanks Pete for link to review! Even though I have not read the book in recent years, that review is clearly about the same book. It is an adverserial book!

Niklas

Pete,

I am not aware of any such records or whether they even exist. Although we have the largest population of people from Bosna ve Herzegovina outside of the country itself (60,000+) here in the St. Louis metropolitan area, finding someone with interest in and knowledge of this subject with ties to the homeland would be like searching for a needle in a haystack. Among local Greek-American friends, I do know a casual hunter who may be able to provide contacts or information.

On another tangent, I don't know your proximity to Chicago, but there is as I recall a rather large collection of arms at the Art Museum on Michigan Ave., and the curator of that collection may be a good source of information.

Also, I came across a title, which one reviewer claims to be a good source for the history of damascus steel. A search of the author revealed numerous related titles, indicating that he is well published. "A Search For Structure", Dr. Cyril Stanley Smith, MIT Press ISBN 0-262-19191-1

skatr2

skatr2,

Thanks. I am aware of the George Harding collection. Of 1,500 items only 255 are on display. None of the thousands of books, catalogs and other documents that were part of the collection are on display. The Art Institute does not have a catalog available of the entire donation. But they have only had it about 20 or 30 years.

They have 69 items available on the web http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/armor/citi/search?collcatid=6&start=1 Unfortunately, it is not possible from the photos or descriptions to be sure of the barrel composition. There was a book, 128 pages, that was published in 1995.

I will check out the Cyril Smith book.

Pete

Here's another by Smith that might be worth reading!
From Art to Science
Seventy-Two Objects Illustrating the Nature of Discovery1980
ISBN-10:
0-262-19181-4
ISBN-13:
978-0-262-19181-4
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=6334

and The Beginning of the Use of Metals and Alloys
Edited by Robert Maddin Foreword by Cyril Stanley Smith
1988
ISBN-10:
0-262-13232-X
ISBN-13:
978-0-262-13232-9
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=5894

Barrel makers forge, Herstal



Pete

All old hearths I have seen in Europe and Scandinavia look more or less like this.

What has always impressed me is that with rather simple tools and a hearth, such impressive objects were produced. However, I wonder if cause of that is in part because there were "finishers" that took objects made by smithys, filed, polished, outfitted, etc. them into final, impressive objects.

At Vira Järnbruk in Sweden, in 1783 a bladesmith was paid 8,5 daler coppercoin per blade for a cavalry rapier, which included smith's cost for raw materials, whereas the finisher received 37 dalar coppercoin per final rapier (handle, handguard, and mounting of them on blade). Would expect something similar for firearms.

Niklas

This source, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blast_furnace , gives the Monks as the means of the transfer of metal processing technology: Knowledge of certain technological advances was transmitted as a result of the General Chapter of the Cistercian monks, including the blast furnace, as the Cistercians are known to have been skilled metallurgists.[9] According to Jean Gimpel, their high level of industrial technology facilitated the diffusion of new techniques: "Every monastery had a model factory, often as large as the church and only several feet away, and waterpower drove the machinery of the various industries located on its floor." Iron ore deposits were often donated to the monks along with forges to extract the iron, and within time surpluses were being offered for sale. The Cistercians became the leading iron producers in Champagne, France, from the mid-13th century to the 17th century,[10] also using the phosphate-rich slag from their furnaces as an agricultural fertilizer.[11]

And have a look at the radiation by night as depicted in the painting at Coalbrookdale: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalbrookdale_by_Night

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

Charles Dibdin

"...if an atheist who never heard of Coalbrookdale, could be transported there in a dream, and left to awake at the mouth of one of those furnaces, surrounded on all sides by such a number of infernal objects, though he had been all his life the most profligate unbeliever that ever added blasphemy to incredulity, he would infallibly tremble at the last judgement that in imagination would appear to him."