R'Man;
Several good points there. Yes I think it is true that a total soak of the action would not necessarily be required as long as the surface was heated to aboive the critical temp for the depth of the case. This would be somewhat akin to the process used on some machine tool ways referred to as "Flame Hardened" though a slightly diferent process. Since case hardening itself does not necessarily produce color, I simply don't have the experience here to say whether the colors could be restored with out the addition of "New" animal carbon being added.
Of all the things I ever read from Oscar this was the one place I disagreed with him. I had some correspondance with him via PM, but didn't really get to carry them to their conclusion from his untimely death. His contention was that it was totally unnecessary to quench from above the critical temp & that only the hardness in the case resulting from the higher carbon content was needed. In fact he thought perhaps this was the way the factories processed them. I Disagree. Done this way the only reason for a quench at all would be to produce the colors. It is of course true that even unhardened a high carbon steel is harder than a low carbon one by some amount. I am though firmly convinced that the original method was not just "Color Cased" but "Color Case Hardened".
It is true I believe that the action if totally unhardened would be capable of carrying the load of firing due to an adequate amount of steel, but that wear resistant surface would be lost.
