doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Thomas Wild - Case Colour Hardening

Thanks Claudio for the PM. Always learning here my friend .

I'm always willing to listen to the masters of course...When doing CCH I always choos guns that I don't mind if I ruin..not that I want to but this gun cost me �100.

Thanks for the comments...onwards and upwards!
Regards,
T

CJ and Tony,

I for one would wish that you not take this discussion offline. Understanding the relative differences in the way craftsmen work on these types of projects is important to me and others.

As a hobby gunsmith myself understanding the nuances and differences in how people approach work is important when evaluating how I might approach work myself.

I think that both of your are professional enough to have a candid conversation that all of us can participate in and understand.

Please don't exclude us...this is the reason I am on this board daily.

Thanks

Fair enough. CJ expressed to me concern over glass beading on the engraving. I've taken on board what he has said, given, he is more experienced than me. I'm going to play with excluding that part of my process for my next gun and compare finishes.

I mentioned that this is a gun I paid �100 for and I'm practicing my CCH process...but all points always taken positively!

I guess there is going to be some edge taken off the engraving even if it's the dirt and some! But I can't see it with my naked eye, not to say there isn't some.

Hope that opens it up for you and you can see where I discussion went!

Cheers
T

Tony,

Thanks for following up. I appreciate keeping us in the loop.

Jason

I've completed the Colour Case Hardening today. Here are some photos. One hammer didn't come out as well as I had hoped but it's not bad. Still learning with this whole thing really..I'd love to be able to dictate colours a bit more but I'm just an amateur!

Regards,
T

T

I am no expert when it comes to this and have only play around with it. However, on the Marlin forum, I recently read a thread by another person who was learning how to case color. Once you get to the point at which you are at, two things seem to help to develop brilliant colors: 1) aerated distilled water and 2) shielding around the pieces to create turbulence around the parts once they are being quenched.

Here is the thread: http://www.marlin-collectors.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=3732

Cheers will have a read. I do aerate the water, distilled is quite expensive to do but I do use rain water, second best. I also plate the lock plates and hammers to increase colour and prevent warping as much as I can...will read that post though...many thanks.

T

Tony�since I�m not familiar with your method it�s kind of difficult to make suggestions but from looking at your results there are several thing that come to mind.

If you are using bone meal, which I think you said you were, it may still have some impurities in it, that could be what�s causing some of those little spots within the blues.
Your crucible should be big enough to be able to hold a frame in it with enough charcoal surrounding the parts as to have it hit the water in a carbon envelope�if they get flashed on the way in you�ll get poor results.
Tap water works just fine, just make sure it�s cold. All aspects of the process are important but you should put special emphasis in controlling the quench.
Everyone does something different, what works for me might not necessarily work for you, so at the risk of being vague, you are getting good colours in some areas the thing to do is to understand why the colours are strong there�.persevere and you will succeed!

CJ

Thanks CJ. I learn with each time I do this. I am using a combination of bone charcoal with normal wood charcoal. It comes from Peter Dyson over here and I don't mess with it really. My cannister is a good size, pictures on my blog, and give's a reasonable space on the inside. I can do one action and plates, hammers etc in one sitting so to speak.

I make the water as cold as I can and aerate it for 2hrs before the quence...this time I kept the compressor going just to see what would happen. I don't think it makes much difference. I shove as much ice out of the freezer in the barrel 20 mins before the quence to get it as cold as I can.

Will carry on playing, thanks for the advice.
T