The question over whether anyone has actually seen a Damscus barrel blow and whether these guns are safe to shoot is a question that is impossible to answer in the affirmative.
The naterial supplied during that era had virtually no quality control and metalurgical chemical composition supplied and mechanical properties supplied and the process was conducted by who knows how many barrel makers with no standardization process,record keeping and testing, hence the 'Proof House' for English guns but not those manufactured in the USA. A final possibly destructive test of the final process.
The American Sciety of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) was organized and produced Standards for Boilers which had been having frequent catastrophic failures with consequences. since then ASME has published many Standards in other fields of contruction with outstanding results.
https://www.asme.org/engineering-topics/articles/boilers/the-history-of-asmes-boiler-and-pressureHow does the ASME Code as it is known, make builders, suppliers and users comply? Simple, you can't get Insurance if you don't comply to ASME and Federal and State Regulators will fine non-compliance.
Makes for a very safe society. Even your fire extinguisher pressure retaining body is an ASME vessel.
So you can discuss, argue, denigrate those that don't agree and reference the Sherman Bell articles(be sure to read my rebuttal published in the DGJ) all you want but the simple fact is THAT one cannot prove that these guns are safe collectively. You can join a forum such as this and gain a warm fussy feeling from like minded individuals but you take your chances each time you use such guns.
That is your right but lets stop the endless process of trying to prove that this manufactruing process assures safe firearms becuase it simply can't be done to objective modern scientfic standards and processes.-Dick
