i was told it was not safe to shoot the plain steel barrels..for a while i did not shoot the barrels so marked..but i did finally shoot the gun it stood the test and i have 2 guns now that are marked plain steel one a 10 ga the other a 12 ga..both guns shoot good..i seen another gun on gunbroker a few weeks back and it was marked plain steel..so most of these old guns s must have survived maybe the barrels are stronger than a lot of folks think...charlie

Charlie: I may have given that advice and it turns out I was wrong. Don't want to give away too much since an article is forthcoming but Bessemer/Plain Steel is stronger than Damascus, which averages 54,000 psi on actual tensile testing:
Siemens (Open Hearth): 58,000 - 62,700 psi
Bessemer or Decarbonized Steel: 63,000 psi.
AISI 1018 Low Carbon (Mild) Steel: 64,000 psi
Whitworth's Fluid-compressed Steel: 66,000 - 67,200 psi
Marlin Model 1898 Slide Action Shotgun “Special Rolled Steel”: 66,000 psi

That of course is not to say YOUR barrels are safe, and should only be used with loads for which they were originally intended after careful measurements of wall thickness.

Now that is interesting , will look forward to your article! Gary

John, if you want to read up on the British browning process W.W. Greener's book, The Gun, has a good explanation of the different methods he used with his composite barrels. It is on pages 279, 280, and 281. It appears he used browning, black/white, brown dark enough to hide the figure, and various points between depending on the gun and its purpose. It was first published in 1881, so it should be accurate at least for Greener's guns.

Moved to Private message.

Brad - how much metal is removed from Bernard damascus barrels when they are re-finished? The barrels in question have stains.

Brad will likely confirm this, but if there is no pitting or damage on your barrel needing to be worked out, the amount of material removed in regular prep of the barrel set is near insignificant.

Some may be suprised as to how little is removed when draw filing out pitting for that matter.