engraving Damascus pattern

[santos]

Bonjour à tous, hi dear engravers

The early barrels were made using thin layers of iron wrapped around a mandrel and then forged.
Here is a video of Belgian blacksmiths forging Damascus barrels near Liège around 1920.

Later the barrel were made out of plain steel and the bore was machined. There was no more Damascus pattern, but on some top guns they engraved a fake Damascus pattern like this gun made in early 20th century


This Damascus pattern was etched


I got a try for Damascus engraving on this small pistol;



I used a liner cutting 6 grooves (3mm width) and à square V for cutting the pattern of the twisted Damascus.


Some little scrolls and “bouquet” ornate the lock


It's not really hard, just boring to cut this repetitive design

I made a video while engraving it andhope you'll enjoy watching

 

[JJ Roberts]

Santos, I have a double barreled hammer shot gun made in Belgium with Damas barrels but the chambers are steel making it safe to shoot any loads thanks for sharing. J.J.

 

[707chrisa]

Thank you for sharing this . There is so little information on patter welded gun barrels. Most early gunsmiths here in the US just folded one layer in half around a mandrel . I say this like it dose not take skill it dose ,but nothing like the skill these beautiful barrels made in France do. Thank you

 

[monk]

oh my ! such a beautiful pair of videos. the work you did on the pistol is very nice. i simply cant thank you enough for sharing this with us. i'm nearly ashamed to ask you. could you please send a few fotos of the vise you used. that vise was quite interesting.

 

[santos]

@JJ Roberts, Thank You. It’s a pleasure to shoot with these ancient guns isn’t it ?


@707chrisa, Thank You for your comments . These are Belgian blacksmith forging barrels near Liège , but we had the same craftsmen in France around St Etienne.


@monk Thank you very much , I always appreciate the kind comments you often write in our forum. So it’s a great pleasure to share some photos of my vise .

It was made with a Soba vise( Indian I think) the jaws are 10cm width and I had to cut slightly( with a saw) the slides and the screw, just to fit on the basis made with an inox bowl( Ikea) The bowl is 20 cm Diam. There is no bearing or rotation system inside the bowl, it’s just filled with lead and the final weight is around 60 lbs ( 30 kg)

The rotation is provided by the turntable with a heavy ball bearing and a 30cm aluminium plate and an aluminium pipe to spport the weight on the floor

 

[highveldt]

Thank you very much for the photo of the hammer shotgun with the faux damascus pattern etched into it. It was in the early 1960's when I first heard someone say that there had been made in the past false damascus pattern shotgun barrels but up until this week I had never seen a photo of one.

Your vice/base is very innovative and must be as solid as a rock.

Kindest Regards;
Stephen Howell

 

[santos]

Thank you Stephen. Yes, my vise has to be solid enough to hold some guns like this old Chassepot of French Army . I haven't engraved a machine gun yet, but it will certainly hold it ....

 

[Dave London]

Thanks Santos
cool set up and beautiful pistol

 

[monk]

thank you. this should provide some good ideas for those wishing to improve their engraving without ruining their economy.