The terms for twist & damascus as relates to gun bbls were in effect at least as early as 1834. I quote from "The Gun" by William Greener, Father of W W Greener.
Damascus being a variety or mixture, made from the composition named wire twist iron, I shall describe them both in this chapter.-----When about to be converted into "Damascus", the rod is heated the the whole length, & the square ends put into the heads,----It is then twisted like a rope or, as Colonel Hawker says wrung as wet clothes are, until it has from 12 to 14 complete turns to the inch.
Note that Mr Greener stated that Damascus was made from wire twist. Whether that is technically right or wrong is really immaterial at this point. In order to understand writings or catalog listings etc from the past it is necessary to use the same terminology as they used. This is why I stress the point that Twist is different from Damascus in that damascus was twisted in the bar before being wound on the mandrel, plain or wire twist was not. After the very minimum of 175yrs of this terminology to try to change it now could only result in catastrophy with no-one understanding it. Best is to simply accept the terminology used all these yrs by the gunmakers themselves as applies to gun-bbls.
Miller
