Album: Liege Damascus Rosetta Stones

Unfortunately, no "European and British Union for the Nomenclature of Damascus and Twist Barrels" existed in the late 1800s. Makers could name their barrels whatever they wished, and certainly Ernest Heuse-Lemoine selected 'American' sounding names for several of his patterns. One maker's 'Boston' was another's 'Birmingham', and English 'Boston' didn't necessarily look like Belgian 'Boston', and almost all of the barrel makers in Liege were probably making a 'Boston' variant, and in several grades. Very few US gun makers selected trade names for their barrels, but chose to identify 'Fine', 'Very Fine', etc. One maker's 'Very Fine' might be another's 'Three Blade', 'Highly Figured', or 'Choice' however. Then, as now, marketing, rather than accurate descriptions, ruled. Trying to connect the Damascus barrels with the maker is quite a challenge since the maker's marks were usually ground off the raw tubes that arrived in New York or Connecticut as part of the final fit and finish. One 'Damascus Rosetta Stone' lies in a case in Ilion, New York at the Remington Arms Company Museum. The Remington Damascus salesman's sample rod is shown on p. 275 of Charles Semmer's "Remington Double Shotguns." The same patterns found on Remington barrels are also on other US maker's guns. Using salesman's sample rods, maker's and distributor's sales brochures, and the clues left by the very few maker's marks still on American gunmaker's tubes, we can 'translate' trade names to the recognized generic patterns, and in some instances identify the likely distributor and maker. The major suppliers Pieper and Heuse-Lemoine obtained raw tubes from many barrel makers in the Vesdre valley however. According to Sir Cecil Herstlet, His Britannic Majesty's Consul General in Belgium, 850 tons of Damascus was produced in 1906, and the 'Syndicat des Fabricants de canons de fusils de la Vesdre' was founded in Nessonvaux in 1907 with 20 members. SPECIAL THANKS to Club Littlegun and Charles A. Herzog Sr.

CLAUDE GAIER "By the end of the nineteenth century almost 30 different types of true damascus-pattern barrels were available in Liege." FROM a booklet published by E. Heuse-Lemoine 'Manufacture of Damascus Gun Barrels' "...it was from Paris that the first imitation came to us for the researches in the combining some mixture of iron and steel in order to produce figures which we call Damascus, such as Turkish Damascus, Bernard, Leclerk, Parisien Damascus, etc. to an infinate number of names, as the combinations that compose the figures of the Damascus vary constantly...with the only difference, that in these the variety is produced by the colours on the surface, whilst the figures on the damascus are produced by the substance or material like the designs or patterns in our linen weavers. What is the Turkish or Curled Damascus, the Horse-shoe, the Boston, etc. that are derived from them." W. GREENER 'The Science of Gunnery, as Applied to the Use and Construction of Fire-Arms', 1841 "The most endless variety possible may be attained; a figure with the carbonized material, showing only the ends or edges of various lamina, or portions of the face of that lamina, may with equal facility be obtained. It would be a never-ending task to endeavour to describe a tithe of the varieties that might be made, and have been. The French and Belgians are very expert at this sort of ornamental work."