Damascus anomaly

[ArtS]

I have never seen a pecelike that, but I did buy an oddity not long ago that seems related. It was a French 10 gauge hammer single fowler that had a Damascus barrel that had a heavy octagon rear portion that stepped down at a wedding ring to a round lighter diameter. The barrel was Damascus but the thicker octagon section was twist. My guess was that it was a lighter damascus overlaid with twist during the welding to give the diameter needed for the octagon section. Odd.

[Drew Hause]

Art: the French adopted Pieper's "Diana Breech" monobloc construction (or maybe Pieper stole the idea from the French?) and it is more likely that the breech monobloc was damascus and the tube twist.
Lots of Pieper's "Modified Diana" barrels (no step down) had a steel breech and damascus tubes

1882

[ArtS]

The gun I bought is earlier than that and the octagon twist section is not a monobloc. The octagon section extends to the end of the forearm tip and the wedding band turned section is beyond that.The damascus pattern only shows after the diameter reduction at the wedding band. The only conclusion I can reach is that the tube was formed with a full length Damascus layer and a twist section for weight and section overlaid at the rear.

Originally Posted by Drew Hause

Art: the French adopted Pieper's "Diana Breech" monobloc construction (or maybe Pieper stole the idea from the French?) and it is more likely that the breech monobloc was damascus and the tube twist.
Lots of Pieper's "Modified Diana" barrels (no step down) had a steel breech and damascus tubes

1882