Baker Batavia Damascus

[Mike Poindexter]

Spinning off on "They are where you find them..." I was looking at a knife on Gunbroker, followed a link to the seller's other items and saw a Baker B grade for not much money, but not much condition either. So I followed that trail looking for more info on Bakers and ended up on GI where I found this Batavia Damascus in what I considered very high condition, and a 16 ga. with 30 inch barrels to boot. Less than a grand. After about 10 minutes of considering the pros and cons, I dropped the hammer. Then I did more research (cart before the horse?) and found the great Baker articles by Daryl and Drew and Dave et al. and pieced together that this is a Baker Batavia Damascus made between 1905 and 1909 and sold for $28 in 1907, when the Leader was $25 and the Brush gun was $24. A premium for the damascus. See what you think. It's too late for me, the gun is on its way. My only concern is that the stock may be a little too crooked. The pics are not mine, but from GI.