Four Iron “Turkish” appeared after 1870, although most Best Guns used Three Iron. Crolle Damascus was available in the late 1820s, but large scroll “English Two Stripe” was not in general use until the mid-1800s, and along with Three Iron “Oxford” and a later Laminated Steel was used c. In England, Stub Twist (made from iron horse shoe nail stubs and chopped up coach spring steel), Plain Twist, and an early form of Laminated Steel were used for quality British gun barrels into the 1860s. Damascus and Laminated Steel barrels from Thomas Kilby & Son, Steelhouse Lane, Birmingham were used by several American makers (with both British and Lindner actions) including William and James Donn, George T.
John Marshall's Monway Iron and Steel Works, Staffordshire was a major supplier of gun barrel iron and steel to both the Birmingham and U.S. Fullard, of Clerkenwell, who ceased operations in 1844.įrom 1845 to 1855 John Dive's mill at Birmingham produced large quantities of “figured” barrels. “Damascus iron” was manufactured in Birmingham by Wiswould and Adams by about 1820 and Charles Lancaster supplied Purdey (and others) c.1811-1826 before establishing his own gun making company. Jones was granted a British patent in 1806 for a method of making barrels from scelps or strips coiled around a mandrel and by 1817 Rigby of Dublin was producing Damascus barrels. Napoleon Bonaparte’s expedition against the Mameluks in Egypt and Ottomans in Syria 1798-1799, production of Damascus barrels in St. By 1700, Liege was producing Twist barrels, and Crolle Damascus by about 1750. With the defeat of Kara Mustafa Pasha by Jan III Sobieski at Vienna in 1683, thousands of gun barrels were available for examination by armourers throughout Western Europe. In 1634 Hungarian gunmaker Caspar Hartmann made Damascus barrels for King Gyorgy Rakoczi I and by 1650 Spanish makers produced pattern welded barrels during the reign of Philip IV. By the early 1600s, pattern welded gun barrels were being produced in India and Turkey, and examples exist of mid-1600s Turkish Miquelet barrels clearly showing a Four Iron Crolle pattern. At some point pattern welded sword methodology was applied to gun barrel methodology - twisting rods composed of thin layers of iron and steel, wrapping the rods around a mandrel, and hammer welding the edges. By the sixth century, pattern welded sword blades had made their way to Northern Europe and by 1000 were being manufactured from Toledo, Spain in the West to Indonesia ( Kris) in the Far East.įrom 1096-1270, Crusaders returned home from the Middle East bearing both the scars and samples of “ Damascus” blades.Ībout 1300 the first iron “hand cannon” barrels were produced by folding a sheet of iron over a mandrel and hammer welding the long edge. Possibly in an attempt to reproduce these patterns, bladesmiths layered thin sheets of iron and steel which were repeatedly folded and hammer welded, then treated with an etching agent (at first citrus juices) to enhance the contrast. Text and images may be enlarged using Ctrl + Attribution has been made when possible, but we will remove any image if notified that the use thereof is a violation of Copyright or Intellectual Property restrictions.
Some of the pictures which appear originated on internet discussion forums and firearm auction sites. You are also invited to walk back in time to the Shotgun Research and the Turn-of-the-Century Shooters and Shooting documents. Drew Hause may be contacted at would be happy to provide an opinion as to the pattern of your barrels (Damascus, Twist, or Laminated Steel) if you would post high resolution ultra close up pictures (partial sunlight works well) here: We welcome input from any source, and Dr. It is very likely that our current knowledge contains errors, and we are continually revising the contents as new information becomes available. This is not a commercial site we are offering only facts regarding Damascus as best as can be determined. The history of Damascus barrels can not be understood apart from Damascus blades, but our focus is upon the former. This site was established as a library for the acquisition, collection, and transmission of knowledge, new and old, regarding Pattern Welded (Crolle Damascus, Twist & Laminated Steel) shotgun barrels. Smith A-2 Variation 1 with "English Best Laminated Steel" barrels