Hand forged Damascus shotgun tube which has had initial machining operations carried out; i.e. the barrel has been drilled and the outside of the barrel has had a machining operation carried out. One tube would be ideal for building into a Single Sporting gun , a pair would be the building block for a Double; I can offer right and left hand twist in the Damascus pattern.
Length 32.5" - Bore .650" - Breech dia. 1.200" - Dia. in the middle .860" - Dia. at the muzzle .913" - Weight 1.3 kilo.
The following is an extract from a booklet published by E. Heuse-Lemoine - 'Manufacture of Damascus Gun Barrels'
"From the remotest times, this industry of gun barrel manufacturing has been practiced in the Valley of the Vesdre from Nessonvaux to Chaudfontaine. Under the First French Empire, our renowned barrel-smiths furnished the contingent of the workpeople for the Imperial manufactories. At that time all the barrels for Military guns were forged by hand; the preparing of the iron for these barrels was exclusively performed with charcoal and the superiority of this iron to that prepared with cokes is well known, In our days for the speciality of firearms as we shall show a little further. Now let us come to our subject; THE DAMASCUS BARREL with constitutes not only the chief, the essential part of the firearm, may be said to have become a masterpiece, for it has maintained its place during the incessant progess accomplished in a few years, in firearms. We say in a few years, for indeed, half a century ago the Damascus manufacturing was only in its childhood and it was only when the fulminate was used instead of flintstone that we may say Damascus barrel manufacturing really began. At that time, it is true, one could find here and there in some aristocratial hands a fowling piece with Damascus barrel, but that was a Damascus, the composition of which was very elementary, compared with our present Damascus. Our forgers and workshops then were almost exclusively occupied in making iron barrels and there were but few barrel makers who manufactured tubes or barrels called TWIST BARRELS (in French; Conons Tordus, Tors Ou Torches). This process consisted of making a contortion at each soldering heat which the longitudinal soldering of the iron barrel underwent, which eventually stretched the fibres of the iron into a transversal direction, the process of which was to give more consistency to the tube for resisting or withstanding the dilatation produced by shooting.
