Drew,
I will definitely be continuing work and research on damascus barrels. I am very interested in communicating with Adam and would like to come down for a visit. At the very least he should have my email address, in case there is any information that he may need to know about the forging process. Please feel free to provide my address to him.
I remain surprised at the very low carbon content of the tested barrel section. The chemical analysis essentially states that the two components are two different grades of wrought iron. I based my assumptions on the carbon content of the "steel" component of damascus barrels, largely on the writings of Greener. But also from writings in the French language, where the barrel components are referred to as acier (steel) and fer (iron). I remain reluctant to make an industry wide statement about the materials used, based on this one test result. I will look into having chemical analysis done on other barrels, to have more results to compare.
