doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Damascus pattern, smooth or not ?

Maybe an unusual question, but.. Should you be able to feel the pattern on newly re-browned Damascus barrels ?
I've seen some which have been etched and are clearly 'textured' if that's the right word, yet others appear to be as smooth as glass. The barrels I've looked at recently are English from around 1890 and you can feel the pattern with your fingers.
Is that usual ? Any thoughts Gents ?

On the Damascus and Stub Twist barrels I have and have re-done, I cannot feel the pattern. A good friend collects 4 bores and I could feel that pattern on one of his Calcutta doubles that had a nice Damascus pattern. The gun is all original and it shows it's age. but still nice.

You can NOT feel the pattern, unless the gun has been etched in acid. The barrel has been beaten and ground. Browning should not raise the pattern.



You can feel this pattern.


Pete

the texture is cause by heavy etching. I did a set using the instructions and etching recipe in the late Tony Treadwell's book and the pattern on those can can be felt. I did another set with the dramatically different recipe on his website and that one cannot be felt.

the only difference between the two instructions is a large amount of the cooper sulfate etching compound

Hi
As a guess the browner may have used a Ferric Chloride etch first which does attack the Iron so they can apply a Gallic Acid mixture to blacken the Iron first before they start the finish browning. Though this method is usually used if just straight browning won�t give a good contrast between the Iron and steel, or the browning mixture had an abnormally high Acid content or it was left on to long.

The acid solution is too strong if you are getting a change in texture between the steel and iron. I've seen this a few times coming from refinishers who need to fine tune their method.

Thanks for your replies, I was wondering about deeply etched barrels, I'm not a fan really, pretty sure it wouldn't make already thin walls any stronger
Thanks again.

The early American 20th century Damascus guns I've seen with original color, have been essentially flush.

Etched barrels are beautiful, but those that were not etched at the time of manufacture would be a hard case to convert over to "etched" finish. I don't think any of the Damascus refinishers in this country are familiar with etching of originally smooth Damascus barrels. If anyone knows of a refinisher who knows how to do this, speak up now.

Bill,

A couple have done it by accident, while they were learning. They do not offer it as an option, to the best of my knowledge.

Pete