case harden & fine shading

tdelewis

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I was reading thread and it brought some questions to mind. I have a C. Sharps action to engrave. It is in the white freshly machined. I plan on have this case hardened by a good professional when finished. My question is, will case hardening come out well? C. Sharps says that it is made of 8620 steel. I didn't realize that the type of steel would have an effect on the outcome. Also how will fine shading come out when case hardened? I know that case hardening can also be unpredictable. I know that Turnbull Mfg. is noted for their work, but are there others that are just as good. I would suggest that some where on the forum there should be a list of trusted gun finishers and stock makers.
 

rmgreen

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8620 is a carbon steels used in casting of some firearm parts. Ruger uses this same carbon steel for some of their actions. D. Turnbull has CCH many Ruger #1s with great success. Defining "WELL" is a bit of a problem as it is subjective to the beholder. The work that D. Turnbull does will be well done. The metal used will not cause this project to go bad. The coloration and pattern of the CCH is not predictable to any finite degree. Yes there are some major controls to the coloration and pattern and I suggest that you discuss this with whomever you work with. Like all metal work the quality of the finish prior to engraving and CCH will have the largest influence on finished product.
 

SamW

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Once color cased the color can be polished off those areas you want to show as "coin" or gray finish ala Phil Coggan. I did this to an L.C. Smith and it came out great with all the fine "bulino" style detail still there.
 

FANCYGUN

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What SamW said is very true about case colors and banknote style detail. Heres a trick I Use with this. Do not have the protective laquer put on the gun. If it is on it already remove it with laquer thinner or acetone. You can remove the colors one of two ways without the laquer. First is just brush on Lysol Toilet bowl cleaner. Then of course flush with warm water. No pun intended. Well maybe so. The other is take a grey scotch brite pad and scrub it off. It does come off rather easy.
Have fun and hope this helps
Marty
 

jerrywh

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I had a C Sharps case hardened by Turnbull and it looked real good but the case hardening was very shallow and in sanding back the bolino areas I went through the case hardening so. If you have it cased I would ask that he be sure to make the case deep enough. This is achieved by leaving it in the oven a little longer. As stated before the 8620 is ideal for color hardening. I do recommend Doug Turnbull. I normally do my own case hardening but the sharps action requires a special blocking and it is not worth making the fixtures for one gun. As far as taking off the colors go 1sam and Marty have more knowledge on that than I do.
 

SamW

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There seems to be several ways to take the colors off. I got the parts back from the case color man without lacquering and removed the colors selectively using the 2mm polishing pins as sold by Rio Grande. I used the red and green ones, mostly the green ones which are really fine. It probably takes more time than with the Lysol (fresh, unused I assume) but I could leave color where I wanted.
 

FANCYGUN

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Sam.I have selectivly removed the colors from game scenes etc using a small paint brush with the Lysol. Of course fresh not previously put to task in the house. I use it for removing the bluing also where I want to.
 

rmgreen

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Its been mentioned before. I use Naval Jelly for the same purpose. It seems to leave a dull gray finish that sometimes I want and other times I will lightly polish to some higher value of brilliance for whatever desired effect I an trying to achieve. The jelly is a little more controllable than lower viscosity liquids but I always use a mask no matter what I use as a remover.
 

SamW

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This was case colored by a fellow in GA and I polished with the polishing pins.

For stock finishers and metal finishers you might check acgg.org which is the gunmakers guild web site.
 

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