Chuck, you are indeed correct.
What we are responding to is the desire of individuals with Damascus barreled shotguns to assure them selves of the barrels integrity and the ability to function in the future without a catastrophic failure. What I pointed out is that the inspection of a Damascus barrel with MT will not yield any objective evidence and that NDE relies on objective evidence and established criteria to make a determination of safety.
You correctly pointed out that any detection method may not find all indications, the theory then being that the flaw is below a size where it will not grow to a size that will cause catastrophic failure before the next detection interval. In another post I talked about the ability of a homogeneous material to sustain an umilited number of cycles if the stress was below the yeild strenght. This ability is predicated on a homogeneous material i.e. without any defects. In an aircarft the material used is not homogeneous, there are various rivits(holes) and welds that expereince stress cycles every flight. These fastening are sources of cracks because they act as stress risers and any undetected crack/flaw may grow to where if large enough will cause a failure.
Unfortuneatly what we cannot provide is assurance that MT provides a method to assure Damascus barrels are safe to shot. -Dick
