doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com British Case Coloring

Does anyone know how these large areas of blue color are obtained? To me, this is really attractive esp. if birds or animals are engraved in the blue area as on the Rigby.

[img]https://imgur.com/38XwSkm[/img]
[img]https://imgur.com/9pxyKhq[/img]

CPA
I believe that a significant amount of the "blue" is a color balance technique

and not from the CCH process.

Could you please elaborate on that, Steve?

I was told once that all the current British makers outsource their case hardening to a firm called St. Ledger's in Birmingham, I'm not sure if it's an accurate statement.

Yes, please elaborate. I have never seen any suggestions, recipes, or techniques for getting a high percentage of blue colors during case hardening.

I've noted that high condition Syracuse Lefevers have a much higher percentage of blues and purple-blues than most makers. Many are predominately blue over the sideplates with only a bit of ghosting around screw holes or the edges. When I see a Lefever with a lot of mottled colors, I immediately start to look for other signs that it has been refinished.

There is a huge difference between refinishing and restoration. And very few so-called "restorations" on Lefevers have anything approaching the period correct case hardening colors. I have the name of one case hardening gunsmith who seems to be able to consistently pull it off in a convincing manner. Most cannot.

Here's a DS Grade Lefever that illustrates what I'm saying even though it has seen a fair amount of use.

Stanton Hills,
If you process your images through Photoshop, almost any color can be intensified.

Stanton Hills,
Please check your PMs.

Aa brown does it's own ,do any of the London shop farm or to Birmingham I doubt it. I think brown used to do Westly Richards

That may account for the intensity of the color, but how do you account for the large area of uniform color in the selected areas?

I couldn't open the pictures, but the Venters book mentioned early on in this thread, and the AA Brown excerpt from that book, elaborates a bit. The video shows a sample of one, but Brown explains how he believes proper British case colors has an area of blue in the center of a part, more or less framed by the other nonblue colors.