Rick, I believe that Walt Snyder's book contains an Ithaca memo that indicates that Ithaca gunsmiths had lost track of the process used by earlier Ithaca gunsmiths to recolor or reharden a "Knick" receiver. A substitute method was described. The substitute method, I believe, utilized a torch. Years ago, I sold a nice 4E Knick to a member of my gun club. He sent it to Ithaca for refinish and an upgraded stock. It came back with a hideous torch colored receiver and an obviously pre used high grade stock with the receiver junction seriously chipped. The original finish had obviouly not been stripped before the stock was installed on my friend's gun. I doubted that he had actually sent the gun to Ithaca as he claimed until I read the memo in Walt's book. I don't have a page reference, but I don't know where else I could have gotten that information.
