Budget color case hardening

[Oliver Sudden]

Did this color case for a buddy. The receiver had worn down to sliver with a few rough edges so only got basic sanding then when into the bone and wood charcoal. Ran the temp to 1450 then reduced it to 1375 for an hour. Tap water quenched in 30 gallon barrel. Came out pretty good for a quick job.

, on Flickr

 

[Unclenick]

Oliver Sudden,

Any image much over 1000 pixels wide is hard for some to see on the board, so your post can be underappreciated. I shrank a copy for you and hosted it on the board.

Here are several online picture resizing services (no need to mess with a photo editing program for that function anymore):
http://www.resize-photos.com/
https://resizeimage.net/
http://www.picresize.com/


The work looks nice, especially for a quick approach. I am reminded, though, that P.O. Ackley, who had a degree in metallurgy, said he found in his destructive testing that a lot of re-heat-treated Mausers and other rifle receivers tended to have microscopic cracks that made them weaker than they had been, originally. This was despite the conventional wisdom of his day suggesting the re-heat treatment would correct deficiencies in the original heat treatment. It may not matter at shotgun pressures, but firing a proof load still might be prudent.

 

[luger fan]

Looks professional.

 

[std7mag]

Nice job!

 

[denster]

Did you use an aerated quench?

 

[Oliver Sudden]

Thanks Unclenick for the resizing. The service I used to post the photo does resize but apparently not right for this forum.
Safety is always a consideration so I do anneal then case then draw the metal. When doing unknow alloys low pressure cartridge fire arms is all I do.
The quench is aerated for at least an hour before hand with no extra chemicals added.

 

[4V50 Gary]

Looks like what we did in college. Well done. John Seim has a book on color case hardening.