Gents, I bought a few old damascus doubles that need a little TLC. Pictured is a J. P. Clabrough & Bros English proofed piece that has a swell look. My question is what are the silvery spots on the barrel, repairs, forging? Thanks in advance for the knowledge.
Best regards,
Bob

[img:left]https://flic.kr/p/2kh58LZ[/img]

[img:left]https://flic.kr/p/2kgZUxt[/img]

The bottom picture looks like someone put silver solder on it.

Time to go see the Dentist
Get an X-Ray made

It's kind of hard to tell from the pics if the shiny silver spots are solder, as jOe mentioned, or if they are just spots where the barrel browning and patina was removed by something acidic. You might try using a Q-tip to dab a little acid solder flux or salt water on one of the larger shiny spots, and put the barrels in a humid spot for a couple days to see if the spot gets rusty. Solder won't rust, but bare steel will.

The silver looks like a dripped/splattered spot of solder instead of something intentional.

What is much more concerning is all the deep red rust mounds along the barrel that are located at the vulnerable folds of the Damascus pattern.

the pics on flickr can be enlarged to make it easier to see the details. They may be signs of serious pitting.

Danger!....Will Robinson........
Proceed with utmost caution unless you just want to hang it on a wall.

Unlike paint if solder drips or splatters on something of the wrong temperature it wont stick to it...what ever it is was intentionally put there by someone.

This is true, and you would be able to feel it on the surface. You would also be able to peel it off with a fingernail.

I saw that rust on the barrels. I have little doubt that it would be gone with a few minutes of rubbing with 0000 steel wool saturated with WD-40. I see no indication in these photos that severe rust has compromised the Damascus. I'm certainly not pronouncing these barrels safe to shoot without a close inspection. We need a lot more information such as the condition of the bores, and whether those shiny spots might indicate that deep pits were filled with solder, and dressed flush with the surface. No sense talking about wall thickness yet, when we don't know if the bores look like rotted sewer pipes.

Just for everyone's interest, and before everything disappears from PictureTrail there are rust inclusions within the barrel wall (not upon the surface as these appear to be) called "greys"

Austin Hogan's Parker 0 Grade Lifter with tiny rust inclusions in the Plain Twist barrels



Peter Hawker, Peter William Lanoe Hawker, "Instructions to Young Sportsmen in All that Relates to Guns and Shooting", 1859 discusses the dangers of that new-fangled (probably Bessemer) steel stuff and mentions "greys"
http://books.google.com/books?id=yXUCAAAAYAAJ
Barrels made entirely of steel are now much in fashion with some of the gunmakers, who are glad to catch at any new “dodge” that will add grist to their mill. The material for this new manufacture is, for the most part, collected from old coach- springs, which are cut in slices like a cucumber, by a 45-horse power engine that works the colossal shears, to which little boys apply the metal with a rapidity like magic. The steel, after being smelted to a bloom in the air furnace, and beat by a 3£ tons' steam-hammer, works much cleaner than stubs or any other iron, and is therefore more profitable, because so little of it is cut to waste, when boring to get rid of holes or flaws that are called “grays.” In short, it is a metal better for trade, and therefore all parties have an interest in recommending it, and tell you that it kills the birds much better than the good old horse-nail-stubs, that are now so scarce as to be almost obsolete.
This assertion, I admit, may have some truth in it, because we know, the harder a barrel is, the stronger it will shoot.
But then we must remember another thing — the more likely it is to burst! I have no objection to keep pace with the times so far as what the coalheavers call “half-and-half” goes — half stubs and half steel; but, knowing that, if steel should give way, it may blow your head off, instead of merely bulging the barrel, I decline what is vulgarly called “going the whole hog” for fashion's sake; and, therefore, I desired Clive, the best barrel-maker in Europe, to forge a large barrel with stubs and steel...

James Dalziel Dougall, "Shooting Simplified", 1865
There are various kinds of flaws in barrels, such as 'cracks', 'sand holes', and what are technically termed 'grays'. They are those little specks in the iron from rust showing more upon them than upon the smoother surface.

W.W. Greener "The Gun" 1907 edition
One of the greatest difficulties with which a gun-maker has to contend is the "grey" in gun barrels. The "grey" is a defect of small actual importance, but decidedly a blemish on a fine weapon and an eyesore in every description of gun barrel. The numerous twistings and weldings of gun-iron rods and ribands are fully detailed in the description of the barrel-welding processes, and it must have occurred to the reader that the Damascus barrel is one mass of welds from breech to muzzle. This is so. Unfortunately a certain amount of burnt metal, or scale, is imbedded within some of these welds, and in the finished barrel this fragment of scale forms a "grey," or small speck of useless material, which will not colour in harmony with the other part of the barrel, but is made more apparent by the finishing processes of polishing and browning. These “greys” may appear some time after the gun has been in use, the hard metal composing the barrel being eaten into by rust, or the thin coating over the “grey” being worn away. They are developed in the inside by the chemical action of the powder gases, and are practically ineradicable.
Sportsmen must not imagine that “greys” weaken a barrel to any appreciable extent, and their development in a gun, after some months' or some years' wear, in no way reflects upon the reputation of the gun-maker. A barrel eaten right through with rust, at or near the muzzle, may be fired with perfect safety; consequently a "grey" is not to be regarded as an element of danger; and barrels after thirty years' wear, or after firing upwards of 100,000 shots, are safe to use, providing they are free from dents, bruises, and rust inside.

There are also however slag (silicates, phosphorus, sulfur and metal oxides) inclusions that do represent a barrel defect, and which the apparent silver solder may be covering.

1895 Ithaca Crass with damascus barrels that were being cleaned up for reblueing. Initially just a small pit on the surface of the barrels, quickly grew into what you see here as polishing continued. Inside the barrels are bright and smooth, giving no indication of a flaw.



This looks to be brass brazed ? into a fractured barrel

Isn't there a simple scratch test to tell silver solder from regular solder?

More "greys"; Hopkins & Allen "Spencer Gun Co." tradename gun for Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co.

"Greys" are not rust inclusions. Rust is rust, and "greys" are greys.

"Greys" is a somewhat generic term for various inclusions in both fluid steel and Damascus. Greys may be composed of slag, rolled in scale, or other impurities.

There still seems to be a lot of confusion concerning just what scale is. Mill scale IS NOT burned metal, as was described in the copy-and-paste research. Mill scale is various oxides such as Wustite, hematite, and magnetite, that form on the surface of steel when it is heated above critical temperature, and exposed to atmospheric oxygen. Steel can be heated to very high temperatures without the formation of scale if the heating is done in a controlled atmosphere purged of oxygen. But in the presence of oxygen, scale can and will form at much lower temperatures. Scale is not common red oxide rust (hydrated ferric oxide), and scale can actually prevent rust from forming until the protective layer of scale is broken. Here's a pretty good explanation of what scale actually is composed of:

https://www.ispatguru.com/mill-scale/

Slag, scale, and other inclusions end up in steel and iron during the manufacturing process, and various methods are employed to minimize them. Better quality steel will have less inclusions and smaller inclusions. But no steel is ever free of inclusions. Scale forms on the surface, and ends up in steel during the hot rolling or hot forging process. Because of that, most scale within steel will usually be found closer to the surface. Because of the way Damascus is made in layers of welded, folded, and twisted iron and steel, scale may end up anywhere within. When you see videos of Damascus barrel production, you often see the barrel maker applying a fluxing agent such as borax to minimize scale formation. Every time the billet or barrel is returned to the forge for reheating, more scale begins to form. The pounding by manual or trip hammers breaks a lot scale from the surface during the hammer welding, but inevitably, some will end up hammered into the surfaces, and trapped within the welds. Naturally, lesser quality Damascus made by makers with less skill and less effective fluxing will have more scale inclusions.

I don't think we can say that the shiny spots on the barrels in this Thread is solder, silver alloy or otherwise. Unfortunately, the original poster has not returned to provide the information we need to make an accurate determination.

Doc...Doc...dOc

One question for you. I know it will be tough for you to answer.

What does anything thing you posted in this thread have to do with the original posters question or his gun ?

Obviously abstract thinking - the capacity to synthesize ideas and concepts (or any thinkin') is a challenge for you jOe.
Try to follow.
The OP asked about spots on his pattern welded barrel.
It is not unreasonable to postulate that the spots were an attempt to cover up something.
That something may have been an inclusion at the surface of the barrel. I provided a picture.
The barrel also has lots of red spots - which appear to be on the surface (like on the breech of this unfortunate double).
Someone following the thread with a spark of intellectual curiosity might have an interest in "red spots" within pattern welded barrels. I provided some images thereof.
150 years ago, James Dalziel Dougall called them "greys" and said they were "specks in the iron from rust"
Bro. Dougall unfortunately did not have access to Optical Emission Spectroscopy nor Scanning Electron Microscopy
40 years later Greener 'splained that they were scale.
Keith has explained that these RED spots within the metal are not an iron oxide.

Do yOu have a headache yet jOe? Take a nap and it should resOlve.

So your answer is nothing....

Well, that's not exactly what I said. I'll try to elaborate without any name calling or eyeball gouging...

When we polish a set of twist or Damascus barrels for initial finishing or for refinishing, we say they are "in the white". Everything is very bright and uniform in appearance, because we have polished off all surface crud and oxidation. Since the iron and steel look so similar in that condition, it can be difficult to even tell they are pattern welded barrels.

Then we apply our secret rusting solution of choice, which causes our shiny white barrels to rust very quickly. A highly polished surface will rust more slowly, because there is less surface area for oxygen to react with. Under the right conditions, with a fairly aggressive rusting solution, they can be completely covered in a uniform reddish brown ferric oxide in only a few hours. This is then carded off. Or in the case of black and white, the barrels are boiled in water to convert the reddish brown ferric oxide to a black ferro ferric oxide, and then that layer is carded off. Subsequent applications and carding, or "turns", gradually begin to color the surface either brown or black.

At this point, it can still be hard to tell if our barrels are pattern welded, because everything is pretty uniform in color. But the oxides that impart the brown or black color do not bind equally to the steel and the iron. And they are even less tightly bound to the so-called "grays". So at whatever point we etch our barrels with our ferric chloride solution, the parts that have this oxide less tightly bound become much lighter in appearance, and that is what gives us the contrast between the iron and steel that we desire. It also makes the "grays" stand out and become more visible too. The controlled oxide we apply as a barrel finish gives us a very fine grained coating that can actually inhibit normal rusting, which is one of the reasons we brown or blue(black) our guns. And the gun oils or wax we apply further inhibits atmospheric oxygen and humidity from rusting our barrels.

But when our barrels are somewhat neglected, such as the gun in this thread, common red ferric oxide, or rust, can form. However, it will form faster on those areas that have less of the protective oxide that we applied in our blacking or browning process. Since the "grays" are more resistant to our browning or blacking, and had protective oxides removed during etching, over time they become more susceptible to a surface coat of common red rust, when our protective coat of oil or wax is gone.

Since this rusting due to neglect is only on the surface, that's why I said earlier that it typically comes off pretty easy with a few minutes of polishing with 0000 steel wool and WD-40. From what I see in the pictures, I don't see that rusting as dangerous. It is what I don't know about the silver spots and the bores that makes me unable to even guess about whether they are safe to shoot. It would be nice if the OP came back and filled in some blanks.

So our pattern welded barrels are a complex mix of steel and iron that is laced with varying amounts of inclusions. Over time, the oxides that form the finish which was applied may also change. And the rate and amount of this change depends upon what we do to protect them from oxygen found in air and moisture. This is when we find that not all gun oils protect equally. When there is a lot of change due to new oxides forming, and old oxides converting to ferric oxide, we politely call that rusting a "patina". The change will differ in a humid Louisiana environment and a dry Arizona desert climate. Although the "grays" may appear to have turned red, a quick swipe with a file or sandpaper would prove that this red coloration is not internal. The red color is due to ferric oxide forming on the surface of the "grays" because the "greys" contain a high percentage of iron. But the "grays" mainly have not been converted to ferric oxide. If and when they do develop such deep rusting, the barrels will become useless.

Thank you William. An excellent explanation, and in agreement with Greener: "These “greys” may appear some time after the gun has been in use, the hard metal composing the barrel being eaten into by rust, or the thin coating over the “grey” being worn away."

No, still not quite in agreement with what Greener said. But he did fairly well, and his explanation has satisfied thousands of shooters who didn't or couldn't know better.