Every so often I read where someone has a shotgun frame that's come back warped after being re-cased. The barrels will no longer fit. The gent starts a thread on one of the websites and asks how to correct the problem. And in reply people will pipe in and say... too bad... sorry but you goofed up by not having the frame annealed before the re-casing.
Although I'm not a metallurgist myself I know that heating steel to a red hot state (as is done in case hardening) will make it softer and relieve internal stresses. Interesting.... because that's the definition of annealing.
What I'm saying is the steel is annealed in the first part of the normal case hardening process, then it's quenched. So, is there any reason to anneal the frame in a separate step before the case hardening is done? Isn't that redundant?
I'm beginning to think the separate annealing step is nothing more than a theory/excuse/BS for a problem that isn't understood very well.
What am I missing here? Thoughts anyone? Thank you. Silvers
