| Iron, semi-steelified, is made with charcoal | 1-150th | part. |
| Soft cast steel, capable of welding with ditto | 1-120th | do. |
| Cast steel, for common purposes, with ditto | 1-120th | do. |
| Cast steel, requiring more hardness, with charcoal | 1-90th | do. |
| Steel, capable of standing a few blows, but quite unfit for drawing with ditto | 1-150th | do. |
| First approach to a steely granulated fracture is from 1-50th to | 1-40th | do. |
| White cast iron, with charcoal | 1-25th | do. |
| Mottled cast iron, with ditto | 1-20th | do. |
| Carbonated cast iron | 1-15th | do. |
| And supercarbonated crude iron | 1-12th | do. |
The original barrel-welders, the real Damascus iron-workers, were, like some of ours of the present day, not the most conscientious individuals, nor the most honourable. For, strange to say—but it is not more strange than true—on examination of most real Damascus barrels to be met with, we find the iron must have been so valuable as to induce the workmen to plate or veneer the superior mixture over a body of the commonest iron: all large barrels are thus made, rifles especially. I presume the moderns borrowed the invention; and it would be well if they made no more extensive use of it than on rifle barrels.
The modern method of making wire-twist and Damascus iron, being gradations from the same material, are here described under one head:—
Alternate bars of iron and steel are placed on each other, in numbers of six each; they are then forged into one body or bar; after which, if for the making of wire-twist barrels, they are rolled down into rods of 3-8ths of an inch in breadth, varying in thickness according to the size of the barrel for which they are wanted: if for Damascus, invariably 3-8ths of an inch square. When about to be twisted into spirals for barrels, care must be taken that the edges of the steel and iron shall be outermost; so that when the barrel is finished and browned it shall have the appearance of being welded of pieces the size of wires, the whole length of the barrel. A portion of the rod, pickled in sulphuric acid, exhibits the following [appearance], the bright parts being the steel, the other the iron.
When about to be converted into Damascus, the rod is heated the whole length, and the two square ends put into the heads (one of which is a fixture) of a kind of lathe, which is worked by a handle similar to a winch. It is then twisted like a rope (or, as Colonel Hawker says, wrung as wet clothes are) until it has from twelve to fourteen complete turns in the inch, when it presents this [appearance].
By this severe twisting, the rod of six feet is shortened to three, doubled in thickness, and made perfectly round. Three of these rods are then placed together, with the inclinations of the twists running in opposite directions; they are then welded into one, and rolled down into a rod 11-16ths of an inch in breadth. Being pickled in acid, to eat away the iron, it exhibits the following [appearance]:—