Dr. Drew:
I believe I found the reference that you used to identify the "angularly laminated" variant here. A good read indeed.
From reviewing Houchin's book, it would seem that most early Quality 1 guns were "twist" barreled, such as this 1890 example:
As far as visual appearance, this "angularly laminated steel" isn't nearly as attractive to me as good Damascus (or even "Twist" for that matter) but it is likely a wee-bit stronger. Most English laminated steels were up to 75% steel. I believe W.W. Greener called it "Silver Steel" Damascus, and (of-course) he took credit for creating it and then using it on many Greener guns.