doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Colors on a A.H. Fox BE - torched?

I have read a letter from Ed Thompson, service manager at the time, stating they no longer re-colored using the crucible technique because of frame warping. I will try to get a copy of that letter.

One example of discussion of torching Ithaca receivers was in Frank Conley's book, page 131, a letter from Fausto Gentile to Bill Mains, among other subjects, a discussion of torching receivers and the related problems. I sold a wonderful old 4E to a fellow club member years ago. He sent it to Ithaca for refinishing and restocking to a higher grade. It came back with a ruined, torch colored receiver and a high grade stock obviously retrieved from the "takeoff" box and installed on his gun. It was severely chipped at the receiver and not refinished.

The info I stated re Ithaca & their Perazzi guns was taken from their Service manual of CA 1981 � a year or so.
About that time a friend of mine had received his late dad's old gun, a Stevens 94 single barrel with tenite stock. The stock was busted & the gun badly rusted as it had not been taken care of for some years. He asked me could I fix it up for him to keep. I told him it would cost more than it would be worth. He said I know that, but give me the best price you can, doesn't have to be fancy wood or anything. He would have been satisfied with the frame being blued. I quoted him a price for fitting up & finishing a Fajen stock & bluing. He said Go For It. I ended up applying this faux Case coloring to the frame, knowing if it didn't turn out good I could just polish it off & blue. I tried my best to "Paint" in a similar fashion to what the Cyanide colors of the 94's looked like & I though did real well. My friend was ecstatic when he saw it.
Some of these cheap finishes can have a place, but I am still firmly convinced that anyone who sticks the tip of an acetylene torch to a gun frame & spot heats to a red heat should be given 30 days on the end of a "New Rope".