doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Damascus explained

Well, Thonon-les-Bains (Thonon-the-Baths) is a town in France. As best as I can make out, ohonon is a Welsh word. None of online dictionaries will translate it though.

The pattern I would like to see is what Beretta called Japanese.

If you have on the early Beretta guns, 1900-ish or earlier, please do post an image.

Pete

Yeah-I tried that too Pete. Wish I was a better linguist (and will be back in Guatemala in 3 wks with Spanish skills barely adequate to find el bano With the current C.A. weather, I better figure out how to say 'flood', 'mudslide', and 'Please save me, I'm drowning')
The Remington "Chine P" pattern could be either 'China' or 'mottled' (which is what it looks like.) Would love to be able to compare that to the Beretta 'Japanese.' You know there had to once be a 'Salesman's Damascus Sample' like Remington's.

OK, some more suppliers, info.

Found on Lefever damascus barrels, ADH.
ADH was the trade mark of Delvaux-Heuse. This was a joint venture between two powerful companies. Jacques Delvaux and Heuse held a joint patent for the making of damascus, circa 1892.

Thonon
There were at least 20 different Belgian companies that operated under the name Thonon. It was in use from approximately 1836 to 1941. At least one, Fernand Thonon, was the proud distributor of arms to courts of Italy and the court of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

So, I think it might be safe to assume that the Beretta catalog reference to Thonon damascus was produced by Fernand Thonon & Co.

Pete

Well done Pete! I'll get that infro added to the PictureTrail albums.
Bruno's book is to arrive from England next week (of course the book will be on our porch and I'll be in Guatemala )

Tuesday Oct 9 at 8pm PBS will air a Nova episode titled "Secrets of the Samurai Sword" in which the trailer hints at using modern technology to unravel the mystery of the steel......there is enough similarities between samurai sword steel and damascus, that surely we will all learn something applicable.

here is the trailer link http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/preview/w_3412_220.html

here is the PBS link
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/samurai/

There should be some new understanding as the result of bringing the latest scientific testing to bear...

Robert,

Sounds interesting. I am currently working on a lead from my readings. Gaier believes that 1683 is a key date in the development of European damascus development for gun barrels. The defeat of Kara Mustafa Pasha by Jan III Sobieski at Vienna was a winfall for European gunsmiths. Suddenly thousands of damascus barreled guns could be examined.

He intimates that while the crusades had made Europe aware of damascus blades, it was the defeat of the Ottoman army that advanced damascus barrel technology used in shoulder arms for Europe. This technology was refined by Europeans to reach it's zenith in the 19th century.

Pete

Great history lesson but really doesn't have much to do with the Sporting gun.

So don't watch it, you racist dog...in fact, please don't respond to my postings ever again...I promice to do the same...remember?

The Japanese development is important. They only had Akome iron sand instead of the standard iron ore. Yet because of the ama-no-habuki bellows, which unlike western bellows, allow more oxygen, thus a hotter forge. They were able to reduce the impurities and became masters at controlling the hardness of the metal.

There is much theorizing today that wootz steel was dependent on impurities found in the local ore scource.

The fall of Vienna was a waterfall event for European gun makers. Eventually all military technology finds it's way into the private sector.

Pete

"Racist dOg"...

What nut hOuse are you typing from ?