what I have seen and heard over the years...what I have heard: some doublegons, made wid twist steel type barrels were made using acid flux and lead/tin solder to join the barrels...in some cases the acid flux was not neutralized after the soldering process...ok, except that after a while, 100 years or so, as the acid continued to dissolve the soft iron and other impurities left during the twist steel making process....a result being that barrels rusted in the hidden areas between the top and bottom ribs...in some cases those barrels rusted to the point that pin hole gas leaks began to occur when the gun was fired...
what I have seen: have seen twist steel barrels with holes filled with solder like material...have also seen twist steel barrels with tight cracks in barrels close to top rib...
also, once had a 12 gauge parker, with Damascus barrels...bores were heavily pitted to the point that old Ed the gunsmith suggested it best to hang this one on the wall, as it was unsafe to shoot , even with black powder loads...or, he could sleeve it with fluid steel barrel blanks, as the breeches and rest of the gun were still usable...having never had a gun sleeved before, I said ok, lets do it...so old Ed cut off the barrels just ahead of the chambers and machined and soldered in the new barrels, reusing the original parker ribs...as for the old twist barrels, they were heavily rusted and pitted pretty much their full length, in the areas, that had been covered by the ribs...as I recall, this gun was made around 1890...the sleeving work was done about 20 years ago...do the math...this rusting process had been going on for over 100 years...
the point being, that the barrels may look fine inside and out...but, what we don't know is what has been going on in the hidden areas, between the ribs...
Last edited by ed good; 02/18/26 05:23 PM.
