Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing damascus barrel finish?

Anyone know what the original finish on these 1894 Remington barrels is and how to remove the rest of it without damaging the "Damascus look". I thought I might put some Duracoat clear on it if I can get the old stuff off. BTW, I have it working very well after a lot of hand fitting of donor parts. Ken

This thread sucks without pics Ken. Lol

The barrels are true Damascus steel, right? Are you talking about removing a clear coat of some type that has been apllied? If so, laquer thinner or acetone will probably do it.

Damascus barrels were original rust blue I think. Naval Jelly will strip off the finish almost instantly with no damage to damascus pattern if cleaned up with hot water as soon as the stripping is finished. That being said collector intrest will be almost destroyed if refinished, it is your gun and if a possible family collection piece it's yours to do as you want,your grandson will not complain when it's passed down to him so have fun and enjoy jrh55

I don't know enough about it to answer! I have the barrels off a donor and I hit them with some 120grit aluminum oxide and the damascus pattern all vanished. I thought the lines would be through the metal and not just on the surface. I'll get a pic up here later. Belongs to a friend and it's rough. Someone already sanded the stock half assed and the metal is proud. I think I could fix it in a pinch.
Craigster, yes remove the existing clear that is gone in spots and shoot it clear.

I've seen a few Belgian guns with "faux" Damascus, basically a paint job. I don't know if Remington used something similar or not.

There's a pretty good discussion of faux Damascus here:

http://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=95153&page=2

Thanks,
After taking this SG outside to take these pic's, I decided it's best left just like it is. I learned a lot getting it to function properly and I shot it a few times without loosing any body parts. I sometimes feel like I'm a pest here asking so many questions and want to thank everyone for their help and patience.
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That is SWEET! Sure would be fun to kill some birds with her....If that fine gun could talk bet she could tell some stories

Sanding will make the damascus pattern disappear ,heat up some vinagar and let barrel soak for a while in it, the pattern will come back, as far as I know Remington never used artifical damascus finishes, finish sand down to about 1500 grit ,buff and etch with acid, then clean with boiling water then rust blue according to directions, it's a learning expierence best of luck jrh55

Go over to the Doublegun BBS and ask. The late Dr. Oscar Gaddy made a series of in-depth experiments in finishing Damascus barrels and the results are available there.


http://www.vintageshotgun.com/ has a lot of good advice for the restoration of vintage shotguns, including tutorials on resurrecting Damascus barrels. The guy who's blog this is recently passed away but left us a lot of good instructions for how to restore many aspects of vintage arms.

Kend, the pattern found in damascus steel results from different concentrations of carbon that form during the manufacturing process. It will restore naturally if the finish is done over. Two paths exist for this I'm told, but I've only seen it done by one version, browning. It was gunshow pick up that had been stripped completely to bright metal, an old Belgian Cape Gun of 16 Ga and .40-40 Maynard if memory serves.

It was a Lefaucheux with decent wood and was shipped to David Yale of SMT, Inc out in Colorado. It returned to the owner, a neighbor of mine as the single most gorgeous metal finish example I've ever seen. Soft pale light brown with all the damascus pattern brilliantly contrasting. As mentioned above, it was basically done in fashion similar to rust bluing but I do not know the particulars.

Contact David if you like, he does very good work.

J.David Yale
S.M.T., Inc.
5600 Sawmill Mesa Rd.
Delta, CO 81416
970-874-1088

Brief comment on the effect of restoring a firearm re: value. What you have will not bring great return on the market. The 1894 does have value in good condition, or might particularly appeal to you for personal reasons. Market value in New to Excellent condition - purchase price + cost of restoration will tell if it is worth the expense. 'Course some things transcend monetary evaluation....and there is absolutely nothing wrong with restoration of an old warhorse.

Given good clean bores you can shoot the gun safely with BP loads or Smokeless for black equivalent loads. Sherman Bell has done much work on this in Double Gun Journal...with pressure equipment...calibrated pressure equipment. The gun I referenced above gets shot often, and shoots well.

You do not want to shoot standard smokeless loads in the gun if for no other reason than it will likely, in time, leave the barrels loose on the breech face. Keep loads in context of pressures generated by BP loads and you'll go far with that ol' cannon.