doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Re-casehardening old newly engraved guns

Let's say you have a project gun that was originally case hardened that you had engraved. The action was polished and then had the gun engraved (the metal was not annealed prior to polishing or engraving and the engraver never squawked about it being too hard). Casecolors are not desired, is it advised and/or necessary to re-caseharden the action again?

Seeing how the actual hardening is only microns thick, what hardening the engraver cut though is gone. If you desire to have the action re-case color hardened, it will have to be annealed. To be honest...it should've been annealed before polishing and engraving.
If the case colors are not desired, brush the colors off with a fine bristle mild steel brush when the gun comes back from hardening, gun makers do this all the time, its not a big deal. You can use different techniques to achieve different results, like aging or "antiquing" the action or brushing it shiny or doing a "French gray".

Dustin

I believe that the hardness of functional surfaces of the action are exactly the same as before the new engraving. If I thought everything was ok before the engraving and I didn't want the appearance, what would the goal be of new case hardening. I don't think the case hardening would correct structural damage done by incorrect engraving.

I have to agree with craigd.
Also some guns might be case hardened to microns (millionth part of a meter), but most are a few thousanths of an inch deep and for any engraver to try and engrave without it being annealed will soon be cursing at someone amd replacing gravers.

I don't see any need to re-case harden it. You don't want case colors on the engraved surfaces. You still have the original case hardness,,however deep it is, on the internal and wear surfaces where it is actually needed.
Adding case hardness back to the engraved surfaces,,regardless of colors , isn't going to add much to the strength of the frame.
There wasn't much case hardness in that one to begin with from the sounds of it anyway. Some don't have any at all, just colors.

I've done a few in that manner (polishing the outer surfaces & engrave) and then french grayed the surface afterward.

Firearms are engraved thru the case hardening all the time. The quality of the engraving haveing been done so varys greatly however.

wild: two recognized experts in the field of shotgun receiver case hardening are turnbull and batchelder...

it would be interesting to hear what they have to say on this subject.