Most of the damascus barrels for the US makers came out of Belgium. When WWI broke out in 1914, the supply chain for these barrels was broken. At the same time fluid steel barrels were more available and much cheaper. This lead to the push to scare people away from damascus. The old time shooters still wanted damascus barrels and some were built into the late 1920s or later. I have seen a DHE built in 1930 that had damascus, but do not know if they were original since it was not my gun.
|