Dale Edmonds damascus refinishing/picture test

[Asa Kelley]

A set of D2 and D3 damascus barrels refinished by Dale.

[Pat Dugan]

Great Pictures

PDD

[Dave Purnell]

Good Job. Does the new site let you group pictures together or did you do something on your computer for that to happen?

Dave

[Asa Kelley]

The new site did everything which is great.

[Tom Carter]

Magnificent! Dale's work is the GREATEST! His rust bluing is also GREAT!

Cheers, Tom

[Bruce Day]

Just look at those barrels, so much variation and much more interesting than plain black fluid steel. Its like you can look at ten G grades, the lowest grade with damascus, and the barrels will all be different.

[Asa Kelley]

Bruce,

The top picture shows a set of D3 barrels(#2 frame) that were the 2nd set of a DH 2 barrel set from 1902. I had them fitted to my 1901 GH. That set of barrels cost me $40.50 including shipping . I got them off of EBAY several years ago. The top rib has the name O.L.Norsworthy Houston,Texas engraved in front of Parker Bros. I googled his name and found out he was a doctor in Houston at the turn of the century. The factory letter said the gun was ordered for Charles and Theo Berwig of Houston,TX so I surmise they gave it to Dr. Norsworthy. This 28" set of barrels were patterned RH 125 and LH 225 #7 pellets in a 30" circle at 40 yards. I wish I knew how much shot was customary in patterning 12 gauge guns (1 1/8?). I have shot many doves with this set of barrels and have shot 100 straight skeet targets.
Dale did an excellent job and this is my favorite Parker.

Asa

[Bruce Day]

Parker 12's were patterned with either 1 1/8 or sometimes 1 1/4, but most tags I have seen say 1 1/8, so lets assume yours was also 1 1/8oz. I don't have tables for #7 shot but I do for 7 1/2 and 8 and it comes out to 350/oz in 7 1/2. So 350 + 44= 394, round to 400.

RH 125/ 400 = 31% pattern. LH 225/ 400= 56%. Looks about IC and Mod by today's standards, very much of an upland game gun. Maybe the good doctor went out to Beeville and Kingsville to shoot quail on the King and Kenedy ranches or ducks around the Houston marshes. Maybe you have a piece of Texas history in hand.

Some folks like to proclaim that all old Parkers were choked tight, but I've found that some are and some aren't.

[Fred Leibsle]

Hi,

I am Fred Leibsle, as a friend, I do internet research for Dale Edmonds, who does not have access to the internet. I found Dale a source for sweet spirits of nitre. Dale asked me to look for information on O.L. Norsworthy and I found that he delivered Howard Hughes. Kind of an interesting historically note, I think.

Fred

[Asa Kelley]

Fred,

The internet is an amazing tool.

Thanks,

Asa

[August Luchow]

What happened to the top rib? Is this the best of Dale's work?

August

[Larry Frey]

That's a good question, what did happen to the top rib? It almost looks like someone applied a non reflective coating of some sort.

[Bruce Day]

Mr Luchow, we've posted dozens of pictures of Dale's work on this website.


Larry, Dale cards the barrels and goes lightly on the rib so as to not degrade the matting and any inscriptions. I saw this one at the shop and it would not come clean. The only thing to do was to leave as you see it, or card it down so severely that the matting and inscription were ground down. While there is an engraver on call to do touch up work by hand, only limited areas can be done, often to reengrave "damascus" after somebody had tried to grind it out. Maybe there is some kind of coating on this one, but it would not come out in all the cleaning and the light carding.

[Travis Sims]

Absolutely Dale did that for a reason. Bruce's explanation sounds interesting and you can see that the matting and rib inscription is quit faint. Other than it might not want to come off, i'd say Dale knows best.

[Larry Frey]

Bruce,
Don't get me wrong I'm not questioning Dale's ability at all. There is however something on that top rib that obviously would not come off during the refinishing process. Whatever it is it is washing out the matting as well as the engraving. It's too bad Dale was unable to remove it. I still can't believe I did not notice it until it was pointed out.

[Dean Romig]

I've seen several sets of refinished Damascus barrels with the rib in that condition. Whatever is is, it is on the surface and there must be some product that will free it and allow for its removal

[Bruce Day]

I could not see any kind of finish coating on the rib. Whatever it is, its in the metal, and the rib matting was not as sharp as it should be, and to card out the darkness to find the damascus pattern below would have significantly reduced even the existing degraded matting.
I have seen hundreds of damascus barrels, and I have not seen that situation before. Of course Dale has seen many more than me. I appreciate this far predates epoxy coatings, but I looked for some kind of coating like that which might chip off, and saw nothing but what I would describe as clean, but dark, metal. I have no idea what it could be, maybe some kind of dye and a carded matting was a good guess. I did not look at it through a magnifying glass, just with my reading glasses that I have to wear any more because I'm getting too damn old. It could be a coating, but its certainly a coating I am not familiar with.

"Gunsmiths" do strange and wonderous things. Not long ago, he had a rib on an Acme fluid steel 20ga that had been set in with Cerroset, a compound used for casting a chamber shape replica to determine what casing fits in a rifle chamber. The Cerroset came out in globules in the bottom of the boiling tank used to degrease barrels. The gun had to be sent off and the top and bottom ribs taken out, the barrels cleaned between and the ribs relaid. A buyer had no way of knowing in advance by looking at the barrels, and they rang OK.

[Dave Purnell]

I guess I'm not very observant either. I was there to see these barrels when they came out of the box from Dale. Asa and I had each sent Dale a set of barrels at the same time to save on shipping costs. Dale completed both sets at the same time and sent them both back for the return trip in the same packing for additional savings. I think what looks like a coating on the rib, is a matter of the photo and lighting. True, a picture doesn't lie. But as Bruce said, It's nothing real noticeable to the naked eye, or at least the naked eye with glasses.

My barrels were the Dam-1 barrels I showed a couple months ago with the very large Damascus pattern. Asa's barrels have O.L. Norsworthy engraved lightly on the rib ahead of Parker Bro. In phone discussions I had with Dale, he said he was afraid the light engraving would be obliterated by the various carding steps. He offered Asa the option of having the engraving re-done, but Asa opted to keep the rib original. So, it appears Dale did just that.


Dave

[Jay Gardner]

Well, he has the 32" 10 ga barrels for my DH and I can not wait to see how they turn out.