What was the 'burned steel' thing that allowed the action the be case hardened in the first place (too deeply perhaps), but did something to the metal that wouldn't then (or now) allow annealing and re-case hardening.
Didn't the same guys ever 'burn' a Krag.
Confused,,but still shooting my Sedgley Sporter..
I shoot my Sedgley too.
Steel can be "burned" when it is raised to too high a heat, which will actually burn out some or all of the carbon. The steel looses its integrity, and furthermore no longer has the same carbon content so it becomes a sort of spongey, fragile iron. It's easy to do at the forge, if you're making (say) a knife, and leave it in the fire too long, and it turns white and starts to sparkle, then you've burned that part of the steel which might as well be cut off - it will never be useful as a knife.
I'd like to know how they heated the actions, how they quenched them, tempered them, etc. etc. Is this information in Hatcher's Notebook?
