Roger, you imply that guns sent to engravers are engraved "hard". However, I am led to believe that some engravers anneal shotgun receivers or have them annealed, engrave them, and then send them to be hardened. What is the real story? I am in the middle of a project right now and would like some information. Bill Murphy
Bill,
Some engravers do anneal and reharden shotgun receivers when a complete custom job is in the works especially if the parts are CCH.
Some will not anneal because they fear the liability of a change to the hardness. Most American engravers are engeged in work on revolvers and some 1911 type pistols. I don't know anyone who anneals handgun parts, especially the cylinder, slide, or barrel. The one thing that does routinly get annealed is the frame of Colt SAAs if they are color case hardened or for that matter any part that is bone charcoal hardened (not cyanide hardened). You just can't do a decent job trying to cut through CCH because the surface is too hard. If it is an old gun with all of the CCH worn off the engraver may opt to cut it as is because the CCH is only a very thin surface hardness,
The one part that I always anneal is the loading gate on stainless steel Ruger single action revolvers. They are almost diamond hard as they come from the factory and there is no good reason for it.
My comments have just touched the surface of this issue because I don't have the time to go into more detail. The thing to do is to have a clear understanding between you and your chosen engraver if he or she believes that parts need to be annealed and if so who will do it and if they need rehardening. Also what will be the costs involved.
My initial comment in this thread was meant to draw a distinction between American and UK/European engravers. The American must consider and deal with this issue whearas our foreign counterparts get most of their work in the soft state directly from the factory or gunmaker during the initial manufacturing process.
My apologies if this digression has hijacked the original point of this thread.
Cheers,
Roger
