Nov. 17, 1906.1 FOREST AND STREAM. 789 
The most accurate and reliable cartridges are the U. S., as proven by careful tests made by the 
U. S. Government experts. 
MANUFACTURED BY 
UNITED STATES CARTRIDGE CO., 
LOWELL. MASS.. U. S. A. 
Agencies: 497-503 Pearl St., 35-43 Park St., New York. 114-116 Market St., San Francisco. 
account of less care and labor being bestowed on their 
production, they are cheaper than hand forged barrels. 
The latest method of making the plainer twist barrels 
is to treat the iron for twisting and the coils in a 
furnace instead of a breeze fire. The theory is that the 
metal is less liable to be burned, the heat being uniform, 
and freedom from greys and faulty welds thereby insured. 
Experience does not fully bear out the theory. Possibly 
more can yet be done in this line toward producing a 
perfectly welded and clear barrel. 
Foreign Twist Barrels. 
Damascus iron barrels are forged in Belgium and at 
other gun-making centers of the Continent by the same 
methods as practiced in England. The chief difference 
between English and foreign welded barrels exists in the 
•quality of the materials; iron of local manufacture being 
that generally employed. Another difference is that bar¬ 
rels of a smaller figure and barrels of fancy figures, 
already alluded to in the paragraph on iron making, are 
frequently produced by French, Belgian and German 
welders. 
Softness is the characteristic of Belgian iron; it is 
found in all their iron manufactures, and is particularly 
noticeable and objectionable in their barrels. The weld¬ 
ers prefer the soft metal, as being easier to manipulate, 
welding more freely and containing fewer surface flaws 
than hard metal into the composition of which steel 
largely enters. There is comparatively little steel in the 
Belgian barrel; there are even barrels in which there is 
no steel, two different qualities of iron serving to pro¬ 
duce that distinction which is necessary to produce figure 
in the finished barrel. 
The barrel welders of Belgium are chiefly located at or 
near Liege. The very best barrel makers who manu¬ 
facture for the London, Berlin and Vienna markets are 
to Oe found at Chaudfontaine or Nessonvaux, both places 
a few miles from Liege. Their method of welding is 
much the same as that practiced by the best English 
welders, but they work at a smaller forge, and instead of 
breeze, use a mixture of coal dust and clay. The fires 
being much smaller, the barrels are heated only a few 
inches at a time, so that greater labor has to be be¬ 
stowed upon their manufacture. 
The greatest care is taken to keep the anvils and tools 
perfectly clean and free from scale, so that no foreign 
mafter can get between the coils and thus affect the 
soundness of the welds. 
The type of barrel, which is peculiarly their own, is 
the fine figured or six-stripe Damascus; in this the figure 
is very minute, as shown in the illustration, and is pro¬ 
duced in the following manner: The welders take thirty- 
two alternate bars of iron and steel, and have them rolled 
into a sheet 3-16 of an inch in thickness; the sheet is 
then split by a machine into square rods. These rods 
are then twisted after the method of the English welders 
already described, but to such an extent that the rods 
resemble the threads of a fine screw, there being as many 
as eighteen complete turns to the inch. Six of these 
rods are then welded to each other side by side and rolled 
into a riband, and the result is a figure so fine that it 
appears no larger than the eye of a needle, and requires 
special care in browning to obtain markings which can 
be distinguished. 
For these fine barrels and for some others the old 
plan of welding on a chemise is still in use. The other 
old plan of plating or welding a thin coating of Damascus 
iron upon a barrel of plain iron has been abandoned, save 
for very heavy barrels for duck guns, etc., which are still 
not infrequently welded of the cheaper scelp or plain 
twist iron, then coated with fine figured iron. 
The regular Belgian barrel of commerce is the double 
iron Damascus, “two-iron” of “Boston”—the same barrel 
by whichever designation known. It differs from the 
English two-iron Damascus in showing fewer white or 
light-colored streaks, and being usually of coarses figure, 
obtained by piling larger rods in the faggot and again 
not rolling them to so small a section as is the practice 
of the English masters. 
At St. Etienne in France, where a manufactory for 
sporting firearms was founded early in the fifteenth cen¬ 
tury, the Belgian models are followed and the iron of the 
district is soft and ductile. One plan much used in this 
district, but by no means original, is the forming of 
barrels of two twisted rods to one untwisted; the appear¬ 
ance is that of a “barber’s pole,” a distinct broad stripe 
of straightlgrained metal running spirally round the bar¬ 
rel from end to end between a broader band of curled 
Damascus figuring. 
The only centers at which Damascus barrels are made 
are, in addition to those already cited, Brescia in north¬ 
ern Italy and Suhl in Prussia. 
Varieties and Qualities of Twist Barrels. 
In the foregoing descriptions of the methods of manu¬ 
facturing twist barrels it is stated incidentally that some 
kinds are superior to others. The comparative strength 
of gun barrels and of the material employed in their 
manufacture, the merits and disadvantages of chosen 
varieties, will be found stated in detail later, but as the 
method of manufacture, as well as the material employed, 
affect the quality of the barrel, it is advisable to state 
here that, so far as known, the strongest forged or twist 
barrel is the laminated steel now usually termed “stub 
Damascus,” made of three twisted rods to the riband. 
The word laminated, as the designation of a gun barrel, 
arose from the fact that early in the century thin strips, 
plates, or laminae of steel, piled alternately with iron 
strips or plates, formed the composite metal from which 
they were made. They differ from Damascus in Jo far 
as the iron and steel are differently arranged in the pile, 
so that instead of a decided curl in the figure there is 
only what may be termed “herring bone” lines running 
spirally round the barrel from end to end. Technically, 
laminated steel is a name metallurgists apply to faulty 
steel. It has been used in the gun trade for more than 
half a century in quite a different sense, as here stated. 
By rolling the rods too fine before twisting, by twisting 
too much, or by twisting to a degree the particular metal 
so treated will not bear, the material of the finished barrel 
is weakened. This, apart from any possible faults in the 
forming—that is, welding and shaping—of the barrel itself. 
Over-twisting, over-heating, and the endeavor, to pro¬ 
duce a fine looking barrel at a low price result in weak¬ 
ened material. 
In the twist barrel the iron and steel must be so 
arranged that perfect welds may be easily made; and so 
disposed that the fibres of steel and iron intermingled 
shall support each other when the strain of the explosion 
has to be borne by the barrels. Steel of the hardness— 
that is to say, steel as high in carbon—employed in the 
manufacture of Damascus iron would be too brittle to 
withstand the shock of the explosion if used alone; on 
the other hand, the iron alone would be too soft and 
the barrel would bulge. By combining the two metals 
in the best manner, so that neither loses its character, 
they together give to the twist barrel sufficient hardness 
to withstand bulging; sufficient elasticity to ensure that 
the barrel, after the expansion produced by the force of 
the explosion, shall return to its previous caliber and 
that high tenacity which prevents the bursting of the 
barrel by the sudden shock. 
The mechanical structure of the twist barrel, not less 
than the purity of the metals employed, enhances the 
strength. 
Some barrels of good material may have their strength 
lessened by faulty arrangement of that material, while 
barrels made of much inferior material will yet be stronger 
because of the better use made of that material by ar¬ 
ranging it with judgment. So far as can be explained, 
without too greatly indulging in technical minutiae, the 
best proportions of iron and steel can be arranged to 
best advantage in what is known as the three-iron barrel; 
whether the iron be piled to give a curly figure when 
twisted, or to give the plain, straight, short-lined figure 
of the “laminated” steel, is quite immaterial. One is as 
good as the other. Four-stripe barrels are not so good, 
unless the barrel is heavier, thicker and larger than 
ordinary, when of course a point would be reached when 
the four-stripe would equal the other. In like man¬ 
ner the two-stripe is inferior, though perhaps not to the 
same extent. The Belgian six-stripe barrels, apart from 
the softness of the material of which they are made, are 
over-twisted. Many of the fancy figured barrels are not 
improved by the manner in which the iron and steel are 
combined, but the reverse. The advantage claimed for the 
St. Etienne barrel, that by the combination of the 
Damascus with the plain twist greater tenacity in both 
directions is obtainable, it yet to be proved, while the 
method is decidedly disadvantageous on other grounds. 
In the trials of barrels by the Birmingham Proof House 
—barrels of thirty-nine different varieties obtainable by 
