Color Case Hardening

bullseye67

bullseye67

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I have done a forum search on the subject but the questions never seem to get answered fully. Is there anyone doing this in Canada? No, I do not want to do it myself. I want to do this to an old 1894 lever. If I can find someone, how much would it cost (ball park)? Thank you for any replies.
 
The only ones I know of are in the USA, Turnbull,Signal Mountain Gun Works, among others. Ballard (who are now in Mich.) do a beautiful job as well, none of this work is for the penny-pincher though!!
 
I've heard of a couple guys using the charcoal technique thamselves and it turns out well.

Turnbull does an awesome job but you can probably buy a brand new rimfire for what he'll charge you.
 
It is a complicated process to get good colour case hardening (I've taken several seminars on the process) and with little demand in Canada, no one's going to set up for it. With Turnbull and the others in the U.S., you can have it done for a couple of hundred if you do the polishing and prep work, and this is labour intensive. The real deterrent again is the paperwork involved in moving the firearms across the border. The whole "custom" gun process is discouraged by having to move a firearm back and forth for case hardening, engraving, and other specialist work.
~Arctic~
 
Thank you for the replies. I did chk Turnbull's website. His fee would not bother me however the headache of getting it down there is a big turn off.
-doubleman- I will chk that out.
 
I've had no experience with him but there is a fellow outside Toronto that advertises that he does that kind of work. Have a look at his site and give him a call: h ttp://www.precisionarms.ca/WebPages/SplashPage.htm
 
Snow Dog said:
I've had no experience with him but there is a fellow outside Toronto that advertises that he does that kind of work. Have a look at his site and give him a call: h ttp://www.precisionarms.ca/WebPages/SplashPage.htm
Click to expand...

Allthough they haven't done case hardening for me, Steve is a good (albeit a little crusty at-times) gunsmith who does great stockwork as well.
 
There is a number of coatings that can be used to produce the same effect. I have used many of them and they all perform very well, I am surprised that more of them are not used by "modern" gunmakers. Here is some info

http://www.newsontool.com/02_35-36.html


4. Laser-Cut 964 (Rainbow) Coating is a proprietary, multi-element, single layer coating having a multicolour or rainbow appearance. This third generation coating exhibits characteristics and capabilities, which surpass other coatings now available. Laser-Cut 964 with its corrosion resistance, heat transformation and superior wear resilience is ideal for all ranges of working materials. This includes high silicon aluminum, stainless steel, high nickel alloys, titanium and composite materials. Its lubricity surpasses TiN, TiCN, TiAIN and ZrN coating, with an amazing coefficient of friction of 0.027. This coating has a hardness of 90 to 92 Rc along with its excellent abrasive resistant quality. Laser-Cut 964 is only 65 millionths thick which will help to assure that a product will sustain its tolerance. Resultant of Laser-Cut 964's superior hardness and low coefficient of friction, many users have experienced between 2 to 10 times the tool life and received a 25 to 50 percent increase in productivity over conventional coated tools. To order Laser-Cut 964 Coated tools add "LZ 964" after the Brite Tools EDP Number. We will quote the tool's cost upon request.

This is widely available in Canada and is superior in my opinion. Price is decent as well. I have not seen it used on a "milder" steel but that is not to say that it can not be used.
 
I have emailed the company about this product's use on firearms. I would love to know if this stuff can be used as the results look alot like good case colouring.
 
Martini and Hagn, had some of their rifles color-cased in the east by a guy who does it out of his own place. They told me who he was, but I cant recall his name now. Since then I believe they go thru the paperwork and send them to Turnbull. They might be able to help you out with his name if you give them a call.
 
I saw a bolt and action that was done by Turnball last month when I was in Ralph Martinis shop. Beautiful work.
 
Way back in the '70s there was a self styled gunsmith would use an acetylene torch on some winchester lever action rifle to make them look like they were colour case hardened. He warped a couple of actions while learning. I would hesitate to shoot any firearms coloured (they were not case hardened) in this way.

Colour case hardening involves the use of cyanide, (usually Potasium Cyanide) as an additive to the bone and charcoal and it is not prudent to do this at home.
This process also requires the part to be heated up to temperatures that will change the temper of the metal being treated. An action that is heat treated and tempered will not retain the same temper after the case hardening process and may well be more brittle. Also the alloy of the steel will have an impact on the colours produced at the end of the process.
The case hardening process may also increase the temper of the steel and make it brittle depending on the size of the part and temperatures used.
Case hardening is a process used to give soft steel a hard durable surface that is resistant to scratches and wear.
It may look nice but I wouldn't have it done on any action that was heat treated during manufacture and intended for use with high pressure smokeless powder.
 
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