Thx, Drew. Wonder why the number of leaves decrease as the blades increase? Is it merely to create bolder figure in the 2 blade for example?

Wonder why uniformity in thickness among the leaves was not a concern? I don't think it was required for strength. The metals compressed at different rates but that doesn't seem to have anything to do with it since the alternating layers are not uniform.

I'll check with Thomas and Leonard Ray :)

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../364044664.jpg

So many questions, and those we could ask are long gone. I stand in amazement at the creative, artistic and mechanical skills of those master craftsmen who made Pattern Welded barrels.

I started a similar thread on the DoubleGun forum and it was correctly pointed out that, in my inadequate effort to keep things simple, I only created more confusion :(

I've never found the word 'scroll' or 'leaves' in the mid to late 1800s Belgian and British descriptions of methodology or pattern nomenclature. Alternees is obviously French. Steve Culver already told me neither a c. late 1800s nor modern blacksmith would approve :) Dr Gaddy used the scroll or whorl words, and I do think they are appropriate descriptive terms

That said, the 'scroll' that we see in the pattern is made up of the 2 halves of adjacent rods hammer welded. The rod would have at least twice the numbers I stated for the 1/2 scroll.

You can count the alternees pretty easily in this image, and can see how the 'outside' alternee joins the adjacent scroll. I count 12 and possibly 13 iron alternee, for a total of 24 or 26. The rod is between the two 'zipper' (wavy) welds.

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../405916959.jpg

'English Two Stripe' and the lower barrel quite clearly shows the zipper (wavy) weld which is down the middle of a scroll but is the weld of adjacent rods, and the straight weld where the edges of the ribband are 'jumped' or butt welded. I count 24 alternees.

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../328933884.jpg

These are a Two Iron 'Horse-shoe' pattern. One can clearly see that the leaves between the zipper welds are connected ie. part of the same rod

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../331461542.jpg

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../371442418.jpg

This all blows my blown mind !

I had done some investigating of terms a few years ago and found that the word 'crolle' (fr.) translates to 'curl', 'coil', 'swirl' and one or two more that I don't remember.

Crolle - Crull - Crullen - Curlen are Middle English words that appear in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales written c. 1386 -
"And his lokkes buth noght so crolle..." and a young Squier with locks as "crulle as they were laid in presse."

In Danish, krolle; Swedish, krulla; French, s'enrouler; German, rolle
"To form into coils or ringlets. Twist."

"Crolle" was used in reference to damascus barrels in Liege and England by at least the 1880s.


Parker Grade 6 toplever hammergun with 6 Iron 'Turkish' and a remarkable 24 alternee.

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../404429548.jpg

Yup, thanks for the correction, (myself relying on faulty memory) that's what I found too. Thanks Drew.

I was doing a letter on a Quality D hammer gun the other day and written in the entry for this gun, the stock book said 4 Blade. There were quite a few Quality D hammer guns on that stock book page and they all said 4 blade. Usually the stock book doesn't give the blade count. Perhaps they had too many 4 blade barrels and wanted to use them up. These guns are in the 52150 S/N range.

I didn't see anything about a blade count in the stock book example mentioned by Robin. Maybe I just don't know how to read it. I guess the workers just knew what barrel to use based on the grade? For example, if the order was grade 5 or 6, they knew to use a 6 blade barrel? If it was a grade 3, they could use a 3 or 4 blade barrel based on inventory?

Also I looked at all my barrels to see of the blade count was there as decribed by Dean. On the DD Grade 6s and the D Grade 2, there was no number stamped for blade count. Only my CH D4 had a "4" over the D.

I still don't understand the number of "alternees" by grade. Seems random.

Dean and Drew, you forgot one closest to my heart; Cruller, that lovely twisted doughnut.