The Question here is not necessarily one of "Originality" vs Re-Finish". Case "Hardening" is done by heating a piece of low carbon steel in a carbon rich atmosphere to "Above" its critical temperature & then quenching in water. In 35 years in a machine shop I never saw a piece of steel, either through hardened alloy or case hardened plain carbon, go through the process of being heated above its critical temp & quenched in either an oil or water medium, end up with its "EXACT PRE TREATMENT" dimensions. When these guns were originally made they went through what was known as "Soft Fitting" which was fiting up the gun prior to hardening by file etc or a metal removing process & then "Hard Fitting" which was done after hardening with a "Hammer"; Bending it back into shape after whatever amount of warpage ocured.
Personally I will never submit one of my ±100 yr old guns for "Re-Hardening" & I for sure don't want one annealed & just "Re-Colored".
I am highly skeptical that anyone who says they have never had a frame warp in process are not re-hardening, but just re-coloring, which can be done below the critical temp.
It is likely true that the "Hard" case is not an absolute necessity for the gun to remain safe, they were afterall "Proofed in the White" ""BUT"" the makers went to all that trouble of putting that hard Skin on for a reason (Color was Secondary). I don't want that destroyed on mine.
