Faux Damascus?

[high_on_a_mtn_17]

I Now and then I come across pictures of late percussion smoothbores with Damascus/twist barrels. Just curious is there is a finishing method or technique to make modern round steel barrels have a faux Damascus/twist finish to them? I’m imagining wrapping the barrel in thread in some manner...

[Gun_Nut_73]

Just a WAG, but I would think acid etching would work.  I have seen it on knives.  Not sure of shotgun barrels.

[elk killer]

Back in the early 80s did some faux looking work on barrels
Polish the barrel bright, then take a string soaked in browning
solution, wrap the string around the barrel, let it sit for a couple
of days, then do same process with a different size string and a
different browning solution let it sit on the barrel a couple of days
Then either blue or brown the barrel

My good friend Dick Hart of the old Oregon Trail Rifle smith's was
At that time pretty handy at getting a believe able faux finish

[Wolfeknives]

Dave (smart dog) made a fantastic pair of pistols some time back. He used a very nice faux damascus finish on the barrels.

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=4525.msg43385#msg43385

Wolfgang

[Hungry Horse]

I have seen a couple of British made plains style original half stocked rifle with faux Damascus barrels. I think this was fairly common on high end late percussion rifles.

  Hungry Horse

[jerrywh]

 I first did fox Damascus way back in 1963 and it came out pretty well.  This is the process I used.  Clean the barrel well with Birchwood Casey degreaser. Get some cotton string or any string should work and wax the string with some bees way real good. Wrap the barrel with the string in a manner that you would like the pattern to turn out. It usually looks better if you crisscross the string some and leave some open spots because the open spots will end up being the pattern you want. After wrapping, spray the barrel with browning solution or even better a 7% solution of nitric acid.  Let it rust or eat until it has a very light pattern on the barrel. Not too deep so be careful. 
  Remove the string and wash the barrel with lots of hot water and detergent to remove the acid and the wax.
 Then blue the barrel with cold blue. You can buy that at Bimart usually. Now carefully sand off the blue so as not to remove the blue that is in the etched sections. Then brown the barrel.  When you brown the barrel it needs to be a smooth type brown. This is achieved by not letting the browning solution work very long on the metal. When I brown them I never let them rust for over 7 to 12 hours. Even if they don"t look  rusty I brush them reguardless. I use a .003 wire brush on a drill press run at about 1200 RPM. If you brush too fast and hard the brown will turn dark gray or black because ot the heat generated so go slow. When your done you will have the pattern you put on with the acid .  You should practice this on a steel bar a couple of times first. I have wrapped them with dental floss for a fine pattern. Brownells has the brush.  NO CHARGE.  This might make a good sticky.

[Scota4570]

I wonder if braiding the string or twisting various sizes in the same tiny rope would produce a more plausible pattern?  I have thought that lining an old damascus shotgun barrel might make an interesting pistol barrel .

[jerrywh]

I wonder if braiding the string or twisting various sizes in the same tiny rope would produce a more plausible pattern?  I have thought that lining an old damascus shotgun barrel might make an interesting pistol barrel .

   Done that also. It works real well. If you have a lathe you can make your own liner.