doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Engraving Question

What does French Grey mean? Reason I ask is that I notice many engravings that are not case colored have the background dark and the engraved subject light. Whereas I've seen a Darne that has the background light and the subject dark. Is there any substantial difference between the two styles? How is the different coloring achieved. Is the Darne a genuine French Grey?

Sorry my confusing question, got interpted by business call. I'll try again.... Some engravings appear light background with dark engraving whereas the Darne is dark with light engraving. What's the different between dark on light and light on dark, if any?

S&R --- to answer your question, I offer the following.

A french gray finish is usually accquired by first bluing followed by removing the blue leaving a light phosphate on the steel. It is easily rusted.

Engraving that has a light background has no texturing (beading / mating ) done to the background between the leaves of the scroll.
Engraving with a dark /textured background is the opposite of the above and has background work done.

I find that color case hardening the action and removing the surface color (not in the engraving) will allow me to del. an action/part that has the hardness of a cased piece, is highly rust resistant. I can also give it a simple treatment that will give a soft french gray color to the case. FWIW, Ken

Gun engraving is typically cut into steel or aluminum alloy surfaces. Both metals polish to a silvery surface that reflects light waves and, due to the preponderence of white light, appear silvery white (light) in color. The engraving naturally has the color of the base metal. So, engraving on polished metal is light on light. Typically, gun surfaces are given an oxide (of some kind) coating that darkens the surface (blue, black, case colors, annodized colors for aluminum). Now you have dark on dark. As the oxide coating wears off, you wind up with dark engraving on a lighter background. You can make the background light by polishing after hardening (or not coating if the part already hard) and fill the engraving with an "ink" coating to darken it = dark on light. In some cases, the engraving can be masked during coloring of the part or the engraving can be cut after coloring - light on dark.

French gray is one of many surface coloring treatments that dulls/matts a polished surface to a gray color. Uncolored is usually refered to as "coin" finished. Temperature colors (typically formed during the case hardening process, but can be formed or renewed without hardening) are usually noted as case colors. Single temperature oxide is usually blue or black.

Ken Hurst and Rocketman gave it to you right. I have no idea what the dark engraving, light background could be; some engravers have experimented with masking and gritblasting specific areas of an engraving, with quite striking results.

Here is a Ruger with a French gray finish, done by rust bluing then dipping in a tank of blue remover (Brownell's Steel-White):

[url="http://www.hunt101.com/?p=444484&c=500&z=1"][/url]

Bill