Letter 8048

Color case hardening 

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Hi,

I am currently a student a Murray State College in Tishomingo, Oklahoma and I am in the gunsmithing program. I am the forth woman to attend this school. We are building up 1909 German Mausers into a sporting rifle. I am planing to rust blue my barrel and I want to have a very vibrant color cased action. They have had very little success in obtaining the results that I want to achieve for my first gun..Frankly I want to blow them away with my creation. I'm sorry if you don't think women should be doing this stuff but guns are a work of art to me and I want mine to be just that....a work of art. I am specifically interested in getting blues, greens, maybe purple if possible but I need to know what mediums to use and how to go about it before I can start. I would appreciate any information that you could give me or even pass me on to someone else that may be able to help me get this done. Time is urgent, and I need to complete this rifle by the time this semester is over,! so please help me...I would greatly appreciate it.

Peace be with you always

Jacqueline King
student - Marlow, OK

Hello:

I am not a gunsmith but in my Machinery's Handbook from 1942 [various old editions available from this link at Abebooks] a process for the type of coloring you are seeking is described. It involves boiling the piece in cyanide of potassium (dark cherry red) then dipping in clear water and moving vigorously. If not moved about in the water The mottled effect will not be obtained. I believe this may be the old process used by gunmakers of the past.

I am trying to find a company that does this as I want to restore some old gun parts and do not want to try this at home.

Good luck.

Sam Bingo
- Auburn, NY, USA

Are you still looking for a good Color Case procedure?
or is it too late?

Leighton Stallones
- Austin,Texas

Ed. note: We are building a technical resource here, Leighton, and as such it is never too late for a technical reply to be helpful. Even if Ms. King has completed her studies, there will be others after her who will consult this page.

Im at the Lassen Community college for gunsmithing and we recently redid our recievers. Mine came out beutiful, amazingly well compared to others. What I did was heat mine in a furnace with 50/50 charcoal/bone (From brownells) mixture to 1333-1375 for one hour then quenched it at around 1340. The quench contained, nitre salts, pine needles, pine cones (ground up), horse poo, bird poo, bird nest, and my roomates THC loaded urine. We also had an air hose hooked up to the bottom of our quench tank so there was water circulation. Colors came out spectacular.... I'd post a picture but I have no camera.

Charles Bonsavage
- Susanville, Ca, USA

The cyanide method produces less than brilliant colrs. It's what Uberti uses/used on their revolvers. Gets the job done but is "blah". Charcaol 50/50 is THE way.

Tom Sargis
- Livingston MT USA

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