K,

Quicksilver was a widely used term here for Mercury. I am familiar with it because the fumes were used to develop Daguerreotypes. It has been replaced today with the Becquerel Process because of the mercury fumes...
http://www.daguerre.org/resource/process/remin.html
http://www.indepthinfo.com/mercury/quicksilver.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_(element)

As to the honeycombing. I will take your word for it. How many shotgun barrels have you seen that suffered from it?

I assumed he meant pitting because earlier he talks about wet guns and using gin. I assumed the gin was used to remove any moisture, which was also problematic with the paper hulls of the day. I could well be wrong on all counts...

Pete

http://www.damascus-barrels.com/Movie.html