"Uncle Bob" Edwards produced twist before Remington's new fangled 'decarbonized steel' became the barrel material of choice
The June, 1909
Outer's Book, A Magazine of Outdoor Interest had an article about "Uncle Bob" which stated that from 1861-1865 he worked in Brookton, an Ithaca N.Y. suburb, where there was a barrel factory making steel barrels for the U.S. Government, and iron and stub twist barrels for the local gunsmiths and gunmakers of the period. The stub twist barrels were made of horseshoe nails brought in by the country's blacksmiths. "...to the best of his knowledge today he was the only man in the United States working at barrel boring who ever made twist and damascus barrels."
To my knowledge, the only
crolle damascus produced in the U.S. that appeared on an American gun was on Wesson Firearms Co. Springfield, Mass. c. 1870
Letters in
The Chicago Field in 1878 state that a barrel forger named John Blaze of Birmingham, England had immigrated to America to make Wesson's barrels. He was listed in the 1865 Worchester, Mass. City Directory as a 'Gunsmith', and 1878-1881 as a 'Blacksmith.' Whether he left Wesson for Parker's employ after Dan Wesson shut down his shotgun production in December 1870 is uncertain. Other Wesson gunmakers did take jobs with Parker, including Charles A. King.
More here
https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=12y9006Ur7mMCqdeeye89c7L4DQrc2iXR8p4S6OIN1bA
