doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Damascus Barrel Origin?

When were they commercially begun?

c. late 1500s – Pattern welded gun barrels were manufactured in India by Ain I Akbari and in Turkey.

See http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfg2hmx7_6dmb7sqd5

They were commercially available when the 1st guns were made. At least in some parts of the world.
http://www.damascus-barrels.com/Time_Line.html

Damascus was an attempt to duplicate Wootz.
http://www.damascus-barrels.com/definitions.html

It soon developed a life of it's own.

Pete

We probably didn't answer your question.
English 'Two Stripe' crolle damascus was available as early as the mid-1820s, but was not in general use until about 1850; 'Three Rod' a bit later. See http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfg2hmx7_69dxb227c6 and http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfg2hmx7_2584fpzkcfv

"Making Damascus Barrels" by Jean Puraye in the April 1976 American Rifleman
It was during the closing years of the 18th century that Western gunmakers began to use a mixture of iron and steel for making barrels. All their barrels were of twist damascus...
In France, Jean-Francois Clouet (1751-1801) was probably the first to introduce damascus. Clouet was familiar with industry in and around Liege and had been in touch with iron foundries in the region of Franchimont. On 26 July 1794, he urged the armaments section of the Committee of Public Safety to employ workmen from Liege at Daigny and train them in the manufacture of arms and munitions. The link thus forged between Clouet and a few Liegeois workmen may have initiated the latter into the technique of damascus work.
An Englishman, William Dupein, experimented with the process in 1798. In 1806 another Englishman, J. Jones, patented a new method of making gun barrels by turning a bevel-edged band of metal in a spiral about a mandrel, each turn overlapping and welded to the preceding one.

While there are cautions in the article I copied this from inre. to speculation; I thought the information was interesting enough to post here.
Jim

"Eventually the technology to make damascus gun barrels was adopted by European gunmakers. In 1634 Hungarian gunsmith Caspar Hartmann was making guns with damascus barrels for George I Rákóczi, prince of Transylvania. A watershed event occurred in 1683 with the Siege of Vienna. The defeat of Kara Mustafa by Poland's Jan III Sobieski at Vienna resulted in thousands of Ottoman-produced weapons being left on the battle field. Many of these had damascus barrels. By 1700 damascus barrels were being produced at Liege, Belgium. Over time, Liege became the major source for damascus barrels. Damascus barrels were produced by every major gun making center in Europe. The great majority of these barrels were used in shotguns. This usage continued until World War I. After the war, damascus barrels fell out of favor amongst sportsman. By the early 1930s commercial production of damascus barrels had for all practical purposes stopped because stronger, cheaper fluid steel became available after W.W. I."

Check this out Jim
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfg2hmx7_116hqrxcjds

That's a lot of information. Thanks everyone.

Drew:
The more I find out about damascus the more interesting it becomes. Thanks for the link.
Jim

Drew,

Look for an American Rifleman from May 1931. A very interesting article about making welded rifle barrels. My copy is still packed away but I may have had it in my scans. Watch your email, I'll try to get it sent tonight.