Color-case hardening

Started by LazyK Pejay, August 28, 2005, 09:23:10 AM

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LazyK Pejay

I am sure many of you know much about color-case hardening than I do. However, I did not know much about it so I have been studying. For those interested here is a very good article from "The Double Gun Journal."

http://www.gunshop.com/doublegunjournal_v7i4_9.htm

LazyK Pejay

Badlands Walker

Great article P-Jay.  Thanks fer' sharin' pard! 

Four-Eyed Buck

Very interesting ,PeJay. Wonder if that second part of that article is floating around somewheres......Buck 8) ::) :-\
I might be slow, but I'm mostly accurate.....

LazyK Pejay

Glad you asked. I searched for an hour and can not find it. There only seems to be two or three articles from that journal on-line.

LazyK Pejay

Big John Denny

Good article there Pejay. I know some local guys who can do a pretty good job of case hardening, but the finished product still doesn't look as good as what Turnbull does.
Big John Denny, SASS 64775
US Army Retired
Los Vaqueros
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"Aim small....Miss small"

LazyK Pejay

I became interested when looking at my color-case hardened Uberti Cattleman. I got close with a magnifying glas. The colors are blue, some gold, a bit of green, and some red orange. It seems the green and red are the hardest to achieve. Some of the USFA pistols have a bunch of gold.

LazyK Pejay

Four-Eyed Buck

LKPJ, I believe those are the straw colors the article refers to. Greens and reds, I think, are the result of the chemical proceeses as opposed to the true bone charcoal type.
I've got an EAA Bounty Hunter that has reds in it and it's done chemically. Looks beautiful, but isn't the true process........Buck 8) ::) ;)
I might be slow, but I'm mostly accurate.....

jiminy criquet

Good article.  This is also something I've looked into.  The 'hassle' of the process appears to be keeping the oxygen from forming scale on the steel between the forge and the quench, which means you've got to seal the whole works up into a container of some sort.  I suppose I'll have to make a few small containers of potter's clay and give it a whirl.

The other thing of note is that it appears that a water quench is a necessity to the process....no oil quench.  Which means that one takes a risk of breakage of the part when using higher carbon steel.  I suppose if you keep the percentage of carbon in the steel low, say .2 - .5 of 1% (1020 - 1050 carbon steel), you might actually end up with a useable part with (hopefully) pretty colors.  Lots of variables though...it probably wouldn't hurt to sacrifice a few virgins prior to the attempt :)

Interesting.

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