Damascus barrel quality

[Double Play]

I'm certainly no expert on Damascus but I don't think the D vs DD was grade specific. The grade seven Damascus barrels below show the D stamp which you would assume would have been DD if that were reserved for the higher grade guns.

[Big D]

Looked at the A 10 again. Actual marks arew "D", "4", and a "C" off to the right of the D and 4

[Ray Masciarella]

It looks like to me that the grade 7 with "D" is a 6 blade. If i'm right, then here is a "fine" barrel with One "D".

Drew directs us to web site that appears to have another AH with 4 blade. It doesn't show the flats to confirm grade 6 but the engraving sure looks like grade 6.

I started out wanting to know the differnce between AH "finest" and BH "extra fine" and now I'm learning all sorts of new things. If some AH's used 4 blade, and it seems that may be the case, I wonder why? I guess there could be various reasons, eg no 6 blade in stock. Would a customer complain when he rec'd his new grade 6 with 4 blade barrels? Maybe if he was very fussy and new the difference. I assume a person ordering a 6 grade would have at the time no the difference since Parker and others adverised different qualities of damascus barrels.

All very interesting

[Ray Masciarella]

I looked closer at the barrels on the site Drew directed us to and find that there are a couple of 6 blade barrels marked with just one "D".

The AH 10 shown here also appears on that site, at least it looks like the same gun.

[Autumn Daze]

Ray, There are a couple of pictures of my BH on Dr.Drews site. I can take a couple more if need be. These are the barrels the late Dr. Gaddy commented on.

[Ray Masciarella]

Dave, did he point put what he thought distinquished those barrels from all others? (forgive me if I'm overlooking it)

[Autumn Daze]

Ray, In the letter that he sent me when he sent the barrels back Oscar just stated"These barrels are the finest pattern I have ever seen on a Parker shotgun" I took what Dr.Gaddy said at face value. I probably should have quizzed him on exactly what he meant by that but alas I didn't. He might have seen something that I didn't.I am sure that there are other examples of the same finest damascus out there and the internet makes "outting" these guns much easier. These barrels were blued when I bought the gun and I was amazed at what beauty came out once he was done working his magic. To my mind his knowledge and expertice is sorely missed. We had many wonderful conversations about these guns over the years.

[Bruce Day]

Besides the number of blades ( eg 4 blade damascus), the thickness of the individual blades varied. Thus, you can find a 4 blade with fine or coarse pattern.

The best guns to see a lot of damascus variations are the G grades. Some have fine damascus like A's, some are coarse. If a person likes to see patterns , the better selection is in the lower grades. Some A grades with 6 blade and and each blade fine thickness, are so fine that the pattern appears uniform until you get close such that you see almost an overall gray.

As for D or DD marking on the barrel flats, I've not been able to see any difference in the damascus.

I like all the damascus variations. Some of the most fascinating are the American Bunting variations in the hammer Parkers, and of course chain damascus, which has not been found in Parkers.

[Drew Hause]

Dave's barrels are a masterpiece of barrel maker's art, as are every other Parker D6 that I've seen

From the July 24, 1886 Scientific American regarding Parker guns:
The "Parker" double-barreled shotgun has, indeed, become so well known, that not to be acquainted with its excellences is to argue that one ha but little familiarity with firearms especially designed for sporting purposes.

[Ray Masciarella]

When I started this thread, I thought one of the suggestions as to the difference between "extra fine" and "finest" would be the size of the scrolls and the number of their leaves. My assumption was that all AH and BH barrels were 6 blade, although now doesn't seem to be the case since there appears to be AHs out there with 4 blade.

On 6 blade barrels, there appears to be a different number of leaves in the scrolls on some barrels vs. others. On mine, it appears some scrolls have 8 leaves and at least one has 12. Of course, the size of the scrolls will vary by virtue of the production process but in some cases they seem to be much smaller and tighter-even on 6 blade barrels.

I thought maybe the difference between "extra fine" and "finest" was the number of leaves and the size and tightness of the scrolls. Bruce's observations are keen because one of my AHs has scrolls with 12 leaves and are so small and tight that the barrel does look gray from a conversational distance. Not what we expect to see but very elegant and sophisticated. Today it seems we all like to see bold patterns but back then everything looked that way so I thought when the scrolls were tight and fine that separated them from the everyday and made them the "finest".

I am surprised to see that this possibility is not discussed and goes to show you I think way to much about it! But, heck, it keeps me out of trouble!