Album: Damascus Repair and Restoration

From W. Greener on 'barrel staining': "There exists innumberable recipes, and in fact almost every maker has his own method. The first I have found to answer uncommonly well, and which it would be a difficult matter to excel. It consists of the following ingredients:- 1 oz. Muriate Tincture of Steel, 1 oz. Sp. Wine (Methylated Spirits), ½ oz. Muriate of Mercury, ¼ oz. Stong Nitric Acid, 1/8 oz. Blue Stone, 1 quart Water. These are well mixed, and allowed to stand a month to amalgamate. After the oil or grease has been removed from the barrels by lime, the mixture is laid with a sponge, every two hours, and scratched off with a steel-wire bruch every morning, until the barrels are dark enough; and then the acid is destroyed by pouring on the barrels boiling water, and continuing to rub them until nearly cool."

"Experts on Guns and Shooting" George Teasdale Teasdale-Buckell Sampson Low, Marston & Co. 1900 "On the subject of steel v. Damascus, Mr Stephen Grant is very clear, and much prefers Damascus for hard working guns. He related an anecdote of one of his patrons, whose keeper stupidly put a 12-bore cartridge into his master's gun without knowing that he had previously inserted a 20-case, which had stuffed up the barrel. Fortunately, no burst occurred, but a big bulge, which, however, Mr Grant hammered down, and the gun is now as good as ever."