Refurbishing My 1893 Parker DH and add on Vulcan Steel Barrels

[Elvin Ehrhardt]

Thanks guys. Yes it’s a 12 gauge. The fluid steel barrels have 2 3/4” chambers and the Damascus barrels have 2 5/8” chambers, but I have fitted the Damascus barrels with a set of Chaszel 28” 20 gauge adapter tubes. This allows the use of any modern 20 gauge shells in this beautiful old gun. I chose Chaszel over Briley because unlike Briley who makes their tubes from aluminum, Chaszel uses high tensile steel. A few ounces heavier but they handle both lead and steel shot. I have test fired the 20 ga tubes and they pattern very well. As for the type of Damascus, I’m far from a Damascus expert, so whether it’s D4 Damascus I’m not sure, but I did notice that the pattern seems to be very much tighter than others I’ve seen before. Another factor was the amount of time needed in the Ferric Chloride to etch the pattern. Most Damascus refinishers recommend only 30 to 45 seconds in the etching solution. That didn’t work for mine. It took a full 2 minutes before the Damascus pattern became visible and even then it was very light. It wasn’t until the hot coffee bath over night when it darkened the patterns. From what I’ve read it seems that the acidity of the coffee attaches to the freshly etched steel but not the iron thereby enhancing the pattern.