To be blunt and for the safety of the shooter, this Thread needs a short discourse in Metalurgy.
Case hardening and heat treating are too different processes designed to cause two different effects. Heat treating takes steel in its annealed state (annealing raises the temperature after forming to allow the stresses induced during forming to flow and 'anneal' which is actually an atomic process as 'dislocations' induced during forming actually flow to relieve themselves) which was designed to remove the stresses caused by forming and hardens the entire volume by raising the Tensile Stress. Prior to the use of high tensile steel by Winchester and Browning, shotguns were manufactured of lower tensile strength steel and as such the surfaces were not very hard to resist wear of both internal parts and the surface of the action. Case hardening was developed to harden the surfaces and the colors that resulted are a by product of the case process.
After the reciever of a shotgun is annealed for metal work, it is essential that it should both be heat treated correctly and the surface case hardebned properly for safety.
The receiver is probably safe to shoot as the design most likely will not cause catastrophic failure with a mild steel but should be done properly.-Dick
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Last edited by Dick_dup1; 06/07/12 05:41 AM.
