Walking Crow

Some first hand observations of Damascus forging. Our shop is in it's fifth generation of smiths, with our founder serving a 20 year apprenticeship at an English firearms company in the 1800s. He was fully trained in making these barrels and he passed along his skills to his son and so on. Third generation smith learned these skills but knew, and felt, he did not have sufficient experience to assure a properly made barrel. Our fourth generation, my boss, revisited learning to make these barrels and feels he is reasonably competent though he is fully aware he lacks the experience of his predecessors. I've watched my boss make 3 barrels and remake a fourth one. It becomes immediately obvious why the exploding barrel fear is so common. I'm mega meticulous when doing normal gunsmithing. It can easily take me an hour or more to do a set up in the boring lathe the bosses can do in 15 minutes. But the level of detail and meticulousness my boss undertook to assure the forge welds were flawless left me in the dust. It reminded me a lot of the descriptions of Japanese sword masters who may only make 10 or 15 swords their entire lifetime. I personally wouldn't even consider making such barrels. Spending over a thousand hours easily, the perfect temperature, the perfect surface coatings, the precise pressure, and the endless repetition and annealings. The bottom line is there is no place in proper firearms, in making or firing, where 'probably' enters the picture. Modern powders and loads should never be used, unless you like walking on the wild side. My boss's axiom: "If it isn't in the exact same condition after 5,000 rounds through it, it's a slop job." Me? just made a 12 inch group, 10 rounds, 1500 yards. Maybe I should quit while I'm ahead. It took me all totaled 3 1/2 years to make that gun.