I have been passed down my Great Great Grandfathers 12 gauge. It is a Damascus barrel side by side. I will never shoot it, but would like to restore it as best as possible. Right now I am refinishing and re cutting the checkering. What do you recommend for the metal parts as far as cleaning and then blueing?

Cleaning; any powerful solvent; I use acetone or xyleme. the barrels should be browned.

I have a beautiful LC Smith Damascus 16Ga. Tight as a tick and no pits or rust. I shoot pigeons and starlings with it all the time using RST 2 1/2 low pressure shells. It would be a shame to not use it.
My Aussie pal told of his gunsmith who would plug the bores of a Damascus gun, fill the barrels with light oil and put light pressure to them through some gizmo he made up. Left overnight, he would look for seepage for weak spots. Sounded interesting anyway.

Damascus Formula will do a great job! Skip the steaming of course.

Bob
www.rustblue.com

Is it an American gun or an english gun? You need to decide if its appropriate to be black and white or brown and white. My understanding is English were brown and white and in general American guns were black and white. Then you would either brown or rust blue then immerse in a very weak mixture of (if I recall right) ferric chloride FeCl I've done it with great results. The etchant is readily available and you want to use distilled water for the etchant blend. You have to immerse the barrel for only a few seconds (and this is where the art comes in) temperature has a profound effect on how long you immerse the barrels from 5 to 20 seconds. The objective is to increase the contrast between the steel and the iron pattern. As soon as you pull it out you have to be fast with baking soda and hose or another tank of water mixed with soda to stop the etching. Repeat the process till you get the depth of contrast you like. I'm not a smith I've just done it with great success so others can chime in if they like It's worth doing to be correct but if you don't care brown it and call it good. Any historical brand I would do it right,

Shawn

If you leave it in the etchant too long you will be starting over which sucks because the etchant will rough the surface and you will need t get it smooth again by hand....yes I have done it

Brad Bachelder is near you in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is becoming the go to guy for restoration work on doubles and specializes in refinishing damascus barrels. He can also let you know if your barrels are safe to use with appropriate loads.