Spliced on the mandrel?
 

Here are two pics which show an area of a twist bbl which looks like where two ribands were spliced during forming on the mandrel. Pic 1 shows the spliced (?) area and pic 2 shows the wide, dark band running directly below it. Anyone want to offer an opinion as to what this is?

Mike, it is not uncommon to see these "splices" in composite barrels. I'm not so sure about that plain dark one but the one in the top pic sure seems to be a splice.

Thanks Dean. The dark area is part of the splice as it runs directly off it.

The barrels are 'London' Damascus Twist and it's a ribband end-on as a new section was spliced/added to the barrel

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../365964409.jpg

The billet or lopin looked like this

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../405710290.jpg