Where might I find Dr. Gaddy's studies on case hardening? I've seen articles in Double Gun Journal on his techniques, but haven't seen any in depth analysis of case color chemistry....
That part one of Doc Gaddy's article seems to go into the chemistry pretty significantly, from about half way down to the end of the piece.
I believe iron oxide, colors, formed during the normal tempering of steel is what he implies is the known baseline. His article seems to detail how the traditional cch process arranges the iron oxide in a unique way.
It could be that you are wearing against some protective coating on your muzzle loader and not the colors. I've heard of many different coatings recommended for case colors. Some of them aren't too durable for their normal use, so I tend to wonder why they would suddenly protect metal colors very effectively.
