Barrel flats markings
 

Attachment 87273
These barrels are on a GH.
Why are they marked with a "D?"
They are obviously Damascus barrels. That wouldn't be it, would it?

It would!

It is.





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Seems too obvious.

When composite barrels are made and not yet rust browned they are an undifferentiated silver and difficult to determine pattern or type. Accordingly it is hard to tell Damascus from twist or even to determine fluid steel without stamped markings.

I wonder if composite tubes were paired at the barrel maker's or here at the factory?

We know that they were difficult and even impossible to how the pattern was wound when they were in the silver stage, and they did need to be paired in order to get this beautiful mirror-image effect.


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Wow. Just gorgeous!

The contrast is so dramatic!

My interest is piqued, because I just bought a GH with a set of these barrels. (Pretty pedestrian by comparison).

Attachment 87278

No, those are beautiful!





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They may have used an acid etch to show the pattern when pairing and assembling tubes.
Just a quick application of acid will show the pattern clearly.

True.





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When I went through the records of the late 1904 Baltimore Arms Co.'s receivers sale at the Maryland State Archives at Annapolis, the inventory showed "pairs of tubes", many sold to Lefever Arms Co.