You have studied metallurgy in Damascus, for sure there Drew. Ive seen the electron micrographs to prove it. Ive had gunsmiths tell me no go too and others who have said they possibly can make the repair. Its very confusing and there is really no literature regarding what may be repairable and what isnt. Its sort of an alchemy sort of thing. The Clarke gun failed, even after British proof, but thats no guarantee all will fail nor even a majority. I think it may well depend on multiple parameters including how bad the bulge is, quality of the metal material, thickness of the walls at the bulge, as well as others. The Clarke was a very old gun so the steel may have been archaic and not as good as more modern steels, but thats only a guess. It would be nice if we had some sort of cookbook to go by defining what likely could be repaired and what cant. Theres nothing out there defining that which I can find.
