I saved this from a long time ago --
Question: Remington Model 1889 Hammer Gun -- "Decarbonized Steel Barrels" -- The Remington Catalogues which I have (1902, 1903-4, 1904-5 and 1906) list the Model 1889 hammer doubles in Grade 1 as having "Decarbonized steel barrels." What does this mean? How do "Decarbonized steel barrels" differ from the "Remington Steel" or "Ordinance Steel" of the hammerless Models 1894 and 1900? Oscar? Anyone?
Oscar’s Answer -- Prior to the late 19th century, steel meant only high carbon steel that could be hardened and tempered to make the many useful things such as springs and other items subject to high wear that only could be made with this material. Other ferrous metals were all lumped into the iron category. This included cast iron with a very high carbon content which was extremely brittle and wrought or malleable iron which was cast or pig iron that had essentially all of the carbon burned out of it and was very soft and easily worked. I believe that this was also called gun or gun-barrel iron because it was used to make many gun barrels and other gun parts. This is what we call today low or very low carbon steel. I believe that decarbonized steel is simply this low carbon content wrought iron and the name decarbonized steel was more of a marketing gimmick to give the impression of high strength rather than a realistic description of metallurgical properties. Parker Bros. also used barrels marked as Decarbonized Steel for a while on some of their lowest grade hammer doubles. I have seen this nomenclature used on European guns as well--mainly lower priced ones. I would doubt that the barrels were as strong as the Damascus barrels made at that time.
