A low, controlled heat process, combined with specific chemicals is the safest way to recolor a shotgun receiver. So long as the heat is kept low and controlled, the original receiver metallurgy and heat treatment is not changed. No harm is done to the gun nor is there any potential for danger to the shooter, as a result of the re coloring process.
Having read your vague, non-specific spiel a good number of times throughout the various color case hardening threads, I want to better understand what you are talking about when you say "specific chemicals" and "low controlled heat".
Are you talking "color" restoration with cold blue chemicals, temper colors enhanced by salts, water color paint, what chemicals are you talking about?
How low and controlled of a heat are you talking about? Room temp, 250F, 500F? Applied with a torch, furnace, easy bake oven? Light yellow on steel doesnt start showing up until about 400F and blues and purples dont show up until about 550-600F, how are you achieving color without heating to at least those temps? Unless its a room temperature application I think you are incorrect about your process not affecting the metallurgy, especially if the heat is applied to selective locations via a torch.
Do you really believe that your low/controlled chemical process is better and safer than the original process that hundreds of manufacturers over the years have used as their standard for heat treat? Are you really worried that all the major restoration shops today are producing dangerous work via "High-Heat" color case hardening?
The reason I ask is because I grew up in a gun shop restoring guns and later worked for a well known gun restoration shop throughout college and I have color case hardened hundreds of guns via the traditional bone and wood charcoal method. When I hear things like "specific chemicals" and "low-controlled heat" I cant help but to think what BS that is. I read that as an amateur gunsmith reading the Ithaca-Perazzi manual wiping cold blue all over a receiver.
I actually found that with many restorations the receivers were superficially case hardened from the factory to begin with due to what I believe was the guy at the furnace "eyeballing" the crucible color. Other receivers were quite hard in comparison, especially some L. C. Smiths from what I remember. By todays standards the color case hardening process used by all the major manufacturers to heat treat their actions was an imprecise crap shoot. Funny thing is, for how comparatively imprecise it was we rarely see a cracked frame to this day, but we do see a good number of loose guns. Overall I think the low/controlled heat chemical process you promote is more dangerous to receivers than the modern, precision controlled bone and wood charcoal (original factory standard) of years past does.
Channing Will
