Drew,
These are indeed interesting documents. But, I have been looking for information that is a step back in the manufacturing process; that of the making of the iron and steel. Among my questions are; what where they speaking of when they used the words "iron" and "steel"? Terminology changes over time, so what was the understanding of these terms, contemporary to the manufacture of damascus barrels?
My next question is, from where did the steel and iron used in gun barrels originate? Was it primarily newly manufactured stock, or from scrap? Many sources indicate recycled scrap in the early years, changing to new stock later. When did this change occur? If the steel was of scrap carriage springs and scythe blades, where did the steel for the springs and blades originate?
In the early years of steel and iron manufacturing, the trace elements came primarily from the iron ore. There can be found analysis' of ore samples from different mines around the world. What mine did the ore come from to make the steel for carriage springs and scythe blades?
There are quite a number of old treatises that can be found on the manufacture of iron and steel. Most that I have found were written by British authors; since I have only searched in the English language. I would expect that similar works were written by French authors. The British documents include very good information, but I wonder if we could find more complete information on Belgian made barrels by looking into documents written closer to the region where they were made. As the French and Belgian firearms industries worked closely together, I think it possible that we could find valuable metallurgical information in French language documents. While most of the Belgian documentation may have been lost, there may be documents in France that consist of correspondence between their industries, as well as shared production techniques.
Essentially, I am looking to back into an analysis of the steel and iron in gun barrels by examining contemporary steel and iron production in that region of the world.
Below is a link to a very good metallurgical book from 1889.
A Treatice on the Metallurgy of Iron
