Parker damascus demo

[Richard Flanders]

There was a most interesting piece at the Anchorage RGS banquet last night. It was on display with some incredible damascus guns such as an EM Reilly damascus 28ga hammer gun. Stunning little thing! From the residue on the muzzles I'd say he shoots it too. The damascus piece was a Parker demo example showing the stages of damascus production, starting with 3 square bars that were twisted then twisted around each other then wrapped around a mandrel and ending with finished damascus hammer welded together. This is from when Parker was making their own damascus and came from an elderly Parker factory worker of some kind. He also had other pieces of damascus barrels sample pieces. What a great item. The guns on display were all absolutely stunning examples. The owner stood there all night and never wandered. Think his name was Stevens. He also had damascus knives and a hatchet of some sort. I got the idea somehow that the damascus demo piece is shown in the Parker story or maybe in some other book on damascus.

One of his guns was a percussion dbl hammer gun with 'etched damascus' that gave the pattern relief.... that was very cool and something I had not seen.