Anyone experience a difference in tone or duration of ringing when barrels are tested for rib integrity, damascus versus modern steel? Just bought my backup, grouse gun with damascus barrels and seller says ribs are intact but barrels don't ring as long as fluid steel because of the composition of multiple, bands of metal.

Regardless, I'll be ringing them personally when gun is in hand and returning if it truly doesn't carry a tune.

strange but interesting question. I compared 2 guns of the same maker, both made in 1905. The fluid steel barrels carried the tune longer but not something you would notice if not looking for it.

vam5067
Instead of "ringing" the barrels to detect loose coming ribs, I suggest you "tap" along the ribs themselves and listen for a "hollow" sound rather than a "solid" sound. In addition to detecting loose coming rib, locations of loose areas are more closely located. I find the bolster of my pocketknife is both a handy and adequate tool with which to "tap" the ribs.
Mike

Tom de Grey, the 6th Lord Walsingham
On August 30 (1888), when I killed 1,070 grouse to my own gun in the day, I shot with four breechloaders. No.1, a gun made in 1866 by Purdey, subsequently converted from pin-fire to central principle, to which new barrels were made last year. Nos. 2 and 3, a pair of central fire breechloaders, made also by Purdey, about 1870, for which I have likewise had new barrels. No. 4, a new gun made by Purdey this year to match the two mentioned above, but with Whitworth steel instead of Damascus barrels. The guns are all 12 bore, with cylinder 30 in. barrels, not choked. My cartridges were loaded by Johnson, of Swaffham; those used in the down-wind drives containing 3 1/8 Drams Hall’s Field B powder to 1 1/8ozs. No. 5 Derby shot; those used in the up-wind drives (where the birds, of course, came slower) had 3 Drams only of the same powder, with the same shot.
I learned that Whitworth steel barrels are not desirable for a heavy day’s shooting. The explosion in them makes quite a different sound from that given off by Damascus barrels: there is more ring about it, and I can imagine that this might prove a serious annoyance to anyone who minds the noise of shooting.

I think the seller may be correct, but no clue why, other than differences in the acoustic vibration.
Pattern welded barrels (a laminate of very low carbon steel and wrought iron) had a significantly lower % elongation than did fluid steel in my study
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cvqRzkg0wEjhAAcFWr8gFi7aPFRsSIJ_hahfDxmrNAU/edit
The ring tone is generated by vibration, and it seems reasonable that the vibration would be different, but the vibration characteristics of metals, steels and steel alloys is WAY beyond me.
I did find that cast iron has superior vibration dampening characteristics over steel.

Dr. Drew, thank you for that. I'd heard about the quotation being referenced before but had never seen the actual text. I will likely take possession of a fairly old (1860s) Damascus gun here in the next few days and I will ring those tubes alongside my circa 1905 fluid steel brummy boxlock. It will be interesting to see if I can discern a difference.

Gun in question: https://www.gunsinternational.com/g...oxlock-damascus-12g.cfm?gun_id=102343895

I'm looking for to shooting it.

Best ringing barrels I have are 30" damascus from a 12ga Elsie... time for church...

They'll probably all ring differently as they are slightly different thickness,, and vary those thicknesses due to taper along their length. They are of various lengths. The ribs are of various
weights, shapes, solid, hollow. You have spacers of different shapes and number soldered inbetw the tubes at various positions chosen by the bbl maker-upper guy.

There are so may differences involved beyond the material they are constructed of, Maybe that one variable could be responsible for a distinct difference in ring tone IF all of the other variables were exactly the same.
..and then it would prove little, other than the material used to actually make the tubes is different.

As to the idea of 'ringing the bbls' to find defects in the ribs, I've always thought of the whole process to be sort of a Carnival Midway Attraction done at shows for the benefit of buyers.
See,,they ring like Church Bells!
Well, that's nice, but it doesn't really tell you a lot about wether the ribs are loose or not to be honest.

They can ring nicely and still have loose spots along the ribs.

A really long break in the rib solder will usually showup with the 'test'. But it's the sort of break that you can easily spot with an eyeball examination which you should be doing anyway.
Tapping down on the rib is much better indicator as already mentioned.
I simply use the tip of my finger and if you come to a loose portion it will 'click' instead of being a solid sound. The click is the loose rib snapping down upon the bbl itself.

Do a very close eyeball examination up and down both sides of both the top and bottom ribs and the short rib on the bottom.. and don't forget to test the forend hanger for looseness.
Some magnification is good to use.
Go slow and push down on the rib with your fingers as you examine and watch the side of rib where it contacts the bbl. If loose you will be able to see even a short break move up and down. Often there will be old oil held in that void and the pushing down on the rib will squeeze the oil outward just a bit , you'll be able to see that especially with close examination and magnification.

Chiming the barrels won't tell you any of that, but in all likeliness they'll still sound nice even if they do have some loose areas in the ribs.

this barrel ringing thing is a questionable practice created by some guy who wrote it in a book years ago...

a truer indicator of barrel to top rib solder intregrity is to inspect top rib with jewelers loop under led light, looking for solder voids...

ring ah ding ding...

an vam, returning a gun with damascus barrels, because the barrels do not ring to your satisfaction is ludicrous...

an, pls do not shoot smokeless powder loads in this old six pound, 12 bore, twist steel barrelled gon...

ah shutter to ponder how thin the barrel walls must be to get the overall weight of this gun down to six pounds only...

the risks of damage to you and that old gon aint worth it...

Vam, ed doesn't want a gun returned to him for ANYTHING. He is speaking as a seller, period. Read between the lines.

gee stan, there ya go pon tif icatin an mine readin agin...plus, pls be aware i am not the seller here...

only a casual observer here...

my primary goals here, as always, are to preserve old gons and protect shooters...

Kutter, thanks for explaining all of that information. I have said this on here a few times and have experienced barrels that were not soldered the whole length by inserting a .001 feeler gage under the bottom rib in spots along the barrel. Another way I have found out about is by immersing the barrels during bluing and seeing bubbles along the length in various spots. These barrels all rang. So far I have never had a gun that had a dull thunk to it.