Paul, your comment suggests one of two things: 1) you're not looking at the guns I am, 2) I don't know what I'm looking at (which is entirely possible). I've got four American-built damascus-barreled guns, probably only two of which have had the barrels redone. All appear to have steel ribs. It occurs to me that damascus guns can be simply rust blued but I imagine that, in the case of bringing out the pattern in the tubes, avoiding the operation of the etchant on a damascus rib would involve a retardant mask and even more work than simply bringing out the pattern, and thus very unlikely.
jack
