I am considering having a case-hardened boxlock engraved. I have a very talented engraver friend who owes me a favor and can do the work. However I have a few questions prior to beginning the project.

I assume that the action needs to be dissembled and annealed.

After the action body is engraved, I'd like to have an antique gray or dull silver finish applied, and not replace the case colored look. I do not know if it needs to be re-hardened.

If anyone has any experience with this process, could you fill me in on all the details of preparing the piece for engraving and then the finishing process.

Thanks in advance.

I'd ask the engraver..
Disassembly, annealing and polishing would be mandatory in my experience.
As would re-hardening, even if the colors were removed afterwards.

If the engraver is qualified to work on a high quality shotgun he or she should be able to answer your questions in detail and have the proper contacts for the non-engraving aspects of the job.

"Disassembly, annealing and polishing would be mandatory in my experience." I agree with Steve.

As to rehardening, some guns have CCH only for looks and are made of modern high strength steels. Again the engraver should know the answers for your particular gun or be networked with other engravers to get the correct answers for you.

Cheers,

Roger

When I take my stuff to the engraver he prefers it annealed. He "has" done stuff on actions for me that are not soft but doesn't like it, wrecks tools and makes it slow.

T

Alot of case hardened actions & parts are not cased that awful deeply that they cannot be polished up and at the same time remove the thin outer case (hardening).

Most can use a good polishing to square things up, make the flats,,flat, ect. Also to remove small blemishes that otherwise hide in the current finish.
An otherwise great looking gun can look not so great to the engraver once the finish is off and in the white.

It avoids the annealing & rehardening steps but still provides
for a soft surface to engrave while leaving the inside and wear surface areas case hardened.
A grey/antique type finish can then be applied to the parts and will take nicely to the soft outer surfaces.

Gives you another option to think about.
I've done it a number of times

Kutter:

I like your approach.

"It avoids the annealing & rehardening steps but still provides
for a soft surface to engrave while leaving the inside and wear surface areas case hardened."

I like your approach. I have read on this Board and in books I have that the the outer hardened skin is in fact quite thin. It would certainly avoid many pitfalls to NOT anneal the entire action body.

"A gray/antique type finish can then be applied to the parts and will take nicely to the soft outer surfaces."

How is this finish applied?

Please tell me more about your process. You can always PM me at mgruber(at)state.nm.us. if you'd rather not post it here.

Thanks in advance.

You will find out exactly how thin or thick the hardening is after the first couple of hours of hand polishing...

Note that casing and heat treating are NOT the same thing and that is why some actions are cased AFTER they are heat treated. Annealing is a very bad idea unless there is some reason other than engraving to consider. Different composition steels are heat treated for different levels w/ different schemes. You don't know what you have and can end up with some less than optimum results just going for a guess.
Heat treated metals are generally more tough than hard and can be engraved. Carbide gravers will cut thru casing too and they will even cut stainless and Ruger actions hahaha. At any rate, Kutter has some good advice there IMO

have a day

Dr.WtS

Why skimp? Metal prep and wood prep are the most important steps in finishing any gun. You would never think about finishing a stock that had not been sanded and filled so why would you engrave a gun without first getting the metal in first class shape?

You can have ten grand of engraving look like crap if the metal is not well and properly prepped before the job and then finished afterwards. Metal prep is time consuming but not that high tech hard to do. It does take time and effort to do well. Might be another matter if you were just trying to pick up the old engraving or were on a tight budget on a gun that you were fixing up to sell.

My understanding of heat treating or at least hardening of steel is that the specs of a given heat treatment would not survive the temps required to case harden. The steel would likely have lost the structure that caused the hardness or at least be heavily tempered or softened.

If the engraver can cut hardened steel, they might not need to remove the hardened case if they just want to remove the colors. The tough part of a case hardened action may be the softer inside, not the harder outside.

Just wondering, Craig

Sounds like a nice gun is about to get wrecked. Your business but I wince very time I see something customised by a hobbyist with a 'mate who can' - chequer, engrave, polish etc etc.

Dare I ask what the gun is?

Don't jump down my throat - it is the owner's gun and he can do whatever he wants to it.

I'm just saying what some of you are thinking.

I remember a few year back people thinking hey could improve their boring old rose and scroll engraved Purdey by getting gold ducks and quail inlaid - pass the bucket!