Courtesy of Diggory Haddoke's Vintage Gun Journal. Some interesting insights for the layman. Blacking is indeed the last step. Worth a look. There is a second video on action making. Will search for that one.

https://www.vintageguns.co.uk/magazine/how-shotgun-barrels-are-made

Nothing about who made the blanks or who originally bored the tubes. I'd assume that in London by 1890, Liege was the source of the blanks and perhaps even the preliminary boring.

There is a series on YT, 1-6, detailing a Purdey build. All are about an hour, give or take. Worth watching.

Purdey Gun Making Series

1. Barrels


2 Actioning


3. Lock & trigger


4. Ejectors


5. Stocking


6. Engraving


Re-jointing

What would lead you to assume that? There was a myriad of barrel sources in England during that time at the British gun industries disposal. On higher end guns like Purdeys, Whitworths would’ve been the supplier of tubes….the barrel borer….either in house (yes, Purdeys actually had the personnel and equipment), or any of the barrel bores/specialists in Birmingham, like Ford.
Thomas Kilby, Charles Lancaster, etc we’re renowned barrel makes to the trade.

Pattern welded rough forged tubes were certainly sourced from Belgium



Not so fluid steel.
Deakin and Johnson patent "Punched Steel" (presumably Bessemer) was used briefly in the mid-1860s.
Wm. Powell & Son used Whitworth steel for barrels in 1875.
P. Webley & Son began using Siemens steel barrels about 1880.
The first Purdey Pair Nos. 10614 & 10615 were delivered January 1, 1880 with the “New Whitworth Fluid Pressed Steel”.
William Evans stated he preferred Siemens barrels in his 1893 catalog.

Thanks Dr. Drew. I will watch each episode over the next couple of months.

I should have qualified the above...."By 1890's UK Damascus barrel blanks most likely came from Liege." And I've posted before on a different line about the use of Whitworth "compressed fluid steel" barrels by a certain gunmaker on which I've done some research, one of which may predate Purdey by 4 years.

But I previously posted a snippet from an 1894 book "Incidents of Foreign Sport and Travel," 1894, by Colonel Pollok whereby he went to Liege to have second barrels made for his gun. (And please forgive me for the reference to the excellence of Reilly bored muzzle loader barrels...sorry...it has nothing to do with this line).


The Colonel sure didn't mind dealing with the suppliers of the "slop shops".

Raimey will be along shortly...Mes amies.

And somewhere I have reference to a Birmingham delegation sent to Liege about 1890 to try to figure out why Liege had so few Damascus barrels with "slag" impurities. It seems the Liege barrels were cast/finished in a very fluid-soft state. I'll have to pull up that reference and post it.