doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Butchered Baker

Nope, but it was very tempting....Got one already, plus a disassembled PH project gun...If it'd been a D, it would have been a "Battle Royale"....Oh, congrats, it looks like a nice gun, and a good deal.

Dayrl,

Would a reasonable comparison be to say that the Folsom colors were similar to Parker colors? With more blues? This is opposed to Crescent, or even LC Smith colors that were brighter and with more browns and hints of red?

Ken, if I don't have some of the examples of Folsom case colors on my website, send me an email and I'll send you some pics of the Folsom colors. As an aside, the Parker colors and process changed over the years. My email is in my profile.

Daryl,

Marcus has the Folsom gun that's featured on your site. The pic is a little dark, but to me I looks like it has darker colors and more blues.

I can't help but wonder what part of the case coloring process was changed when Folsom began their production. It doesn't (at least to me) appear that they simply switched over to the same process used on Crescent guns. But, the coloring does appear different than the Batavia produced guns..

It may be an issue of the steel used, depending on where Folsom got their forgings..

So many variables, if the forgings were made from the same steel and by the same people who made the Crescent parts, and then were colored by the same process, one would think that they'd look somewhat similar. But, this does not appear to be the case..One wonders if Folsom was able to still source the forgings from Batavia..

Ken, I think the Folsom process was different than the Baker Gun and Forging process. Noting that the Folsom guns were made to a lower price market, the color case hardening must have followed that thought. I will say, as I have noted often, the Folsom guns color case hardening, whatever it's process, was unusually durable. So many Folsom guns with still bright colors.

Hmmm, that would possibly indicate a greater depth of the hardening. Possibly a higher temperature and/or a longer length of time. Medium manipulation would affect the colors, and shielding could produce a more even distribution of the color..All at the control of the "Meister" at the Crescent plant. Too bad there's little documentation of the actual processes left..

Daryl;

At the time this was posted Ken still was still stating that Folsom Bakers were being built in the Batavia factory. This reads to me that it was saying that either Folsom or Someone converted the factory to make Auto Parts after Folsom ceased having Baker Shotguns made there in that Batavia plant. This was what I was responding to as I did not feel this was the Facts. This was a post or so prior to mine.

2-piper,

I think you were posting this at the time I was reading Daryl's W H Baker history section that enabled me to correct my false assumption...By the time I posted my correction, you had already posted yours..

Now, since I actually have a professional association with an industrial heat treatment company with it's own lab, I going to have to keep my eyes open for a Folsom gun. Then I'll take both a Batavia and a Folsom gun in and see how they measure up according to the Rockwell hardness scale...

Ken;
I think you are right, it was all a matter of timing. Matter of fact I think Daryl was posting his while I was slowly 2-finger typing mine in. I read his right after I had posted.
What type of equipment do you use to check the hardness of a case hardened surface. In the machine shop I worked in we mostly checked Rockwell C scales & I don't believe the equipment we used would give an accurate reading or a case hardened surface.
No doubt though there is far more sophisticated equipment than we had although it was accurate on through hardened heat treated steel.