doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Etched Damascus on a 1913 Flues.

Let me add fuel to the debate. With serious confusion folllowing the responses to my previous post and the advice I received from Les Hobcroft, I sent the barrels to a metalurgist and he performed Magnaflux testing and magnified visual inspection of the barrels. He could not find any evidence of welds or seams in the barrels. So, I still do not know if I have damascus barrels or not. Believe me, I am not questioning anyone's expertise. I just would like to deffinatively know if the barrels are damascus.

Man you just wasted a lot of money to find out we were right. Trust the brain trust here ..believe me.

Don't you mean Les Hovencamp?

Polish them bright to remove the pattern under the 4end then apply an acid or browning solution. If they are Damascus the pattern should show up.

Mark is correct. I have bought dozens of Damascus and fake Damascus barrels and tested them with browning solution and acid. If the pattern does not show up under the acid or browning test they are not true Damascus. BUT--- look very closely- sometimes it is difficult to see.

You have bought dozens of fake damascus?

Another test that is non-destructive and almost invisible is to perform a hardness testing - this leads to the ultimate tensile strength of the metal.

With a modern chunk of steel you can take repeated measurements all within the same small area of the surface and get pretty much a consistent reading +/- reading errors. The measurement you like the most is the one you keep. Now, with Damascus, I've noticed that the readings are not nearly as consistent at all, they seem to center around two values, one high and one low. This makes total sense since we have the sandwich of the weldable soft iron layer and the hard solid stuff.

Is it foolproof positive? I don't know - it would depend on the fineness of the whole works to make for an inconclusive result.

Would it matter? no, not much since you'd at least get a good handle on the actual measured strength of your gun.

Even if it is not Damascus it is a Flues and made in 1913. Low pressure ammo in in order no matter what it is.

battle.
Yep dozens of both damascus and fake damascus. Over E-bay for 10 years.

battle.
Yep dozens of both damascus and fake damascus. Over E-bay for 10 years. The belgians cranked out fake damascus by the thousands in the early 1900's. Usually , but not always if they were English ,or American with out belgian proof marks they were the real thing.

WOW! I did not know that!