Thanks for the response Marc, and I truly am not trying to be argumentative. I stand in awe of your engineering credentials. This, however, is not just a question of the practical application of heat. It is also one about the appreciation of the gun as art.
With regard to your second note, what you describe is why I used the terms case hardened vice case colored in describing mausers actions. I, too, would be more than a little surprised to see a military mauser case colored in it's military livery. But again, that is not what I said. What I did note is that many of those case hardened actions have been further case colored by some of the finest rifle makers in Germany and Austria for a century and used as the basis for some of the finest rifles ever built. You can still order one today.
And with regard to the quote, the point I was making was with regard to your use of the term "fad". A newly ordered, bespoke Holland or Purdey will arive at your door in 24 months or so with muted, lovely case colors just like your grandfather could have ordered it with the exception of that more modern steel to which you refer. Whatever the appreciation of case colors is, it is hardly a "fad".
Whether case coloring is necessary is a very different subject. What I do doubt is whether the work of say Turnbull is in anyway destructive to a modern steel. Of course not. And if a customer prefers that traditional look, or wishes to restore an older arm, then why not? In that case, it really is just an issue of taste rather than mechanics. And Marc, you absolutely don't have to appreciate either the redunduncy of case coloring a case hardened steel, or the appearance of case colors themselves. I am one of those who do.
Whether appreciated or not, I do know those colors have been around an awful long time, and suspect they will for a long, long time to come.
Last edited by Joe Taylor; 08/26/07 08:01 PM.
