Miller,

Just say we are square here, Im not trying to say you dont know anything about heat treatment or color case hardening. I dont want to offend anyone here, but rather share what I can and hope that somebody might have a use for it. Secondly, Im not a metallurgist and dont play one on tv. What Im sharing is from trial and error, experimentation, and mostly from reading everything I can on color case hardening. I understand why youre not a fan of re coloring guns. Many folks dont like it because its so risky (but much less if your not shooting for 1450), and Im a firm believer that it shouldnt be done unless completely necessary (at least on doubles, I could care less about those guns with levers and one barrel ;)) Either way, if you ever get a chance, get together a group of guns and compare how hard they are. Ive noticed that all guns have different levels of hardness, which leads me to believe that reaching that critical temp is not necessary for re coloring. I think you will find that many of the trades leading case coloring providers will do the same (although they wont tell you). Ive owned guns that were sent to Turnbull, Menk, Classic Guns, and a new screw slot file cut through the thin case and right into the soft metal of the under-tangs on all of them. Another example, I had two L. C. Smiths that I was experimenting with. Prior to annealing, the one was rock hard. I couldnt even touch it with a course file on the back end of the tang! (this might explain the engineers letter stating 1600F for Smiths, but I still cant believe that). The other smith was much softer, and I could cut into with emery cloth after a few strokes. They were less than 1000 numbers apart, both in similar shootable condition. That is what leads me to believe that the hardness that is achieved by carburizing at or above critical temp is not necessary for re coloring.

Alex, I have some stripped, scrap actions I can send you to experiment with if youd like. They are old hammer gun actions and wont require an ffl, but I can even send you some that arent as old and we can go through an ffl. Give me a PM if you, or anyone else is interested.

Last edited by CMWill; 09/11/08 09:07 AM.