doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com British Case Coloring

I was able to recover this PDF from "Guncraft" in 2015. You will need to cut and paste the link
https://web.archive.org/web/20151010095002/http://www.doubleguncraft.com/uploads/PDFs/GunCraft_Book.pdf

The pdf is a chapter in Vic Venter's "Gun Craft: Fine Guns and Gunmakers in the 21st Century" published in 2010, and which he posted on the internet in 2015. He graciously gave permission to post here.

Dr.drew there is. Video about aa brown co doing case hardening /case coloring on youtube

Robin Brown color case hardening video, click and scroll down to see it.

https://www.aabrownandsons.com/videos.html

Thank you, Stephen.

Don't forget to scroll down to the right video, as there are several others by AA Brown that may start playing if you don't.

One thing I noticed in the AA Brown CCH video, that is different from others' techniques I've seen, and read about, is that they don't worry about keeping the lid in place on the crucible. They slowly removed the lid in the oven and carried the open crucible outside. Evidently having the (poorly fitting) lid in place until the last second is totally unimportant. This is 180 degrees from what Oscar Gaddy believed and practiced. I'm beginning to wonder if the other variables, such as composition of the charcoal pack, temp achieved, and length of time the temp is held, aren't more important to the end result. It would appear, from this video, that oxygen will not invade the super-heated pack for a few moments, even with the lid removed.

Very interesting.

Douglas Tate in www.thefield.co.uk
http://www.aabrownandsons.com/assets/files/FieldCH.pdf

It all looks so simple though it is one of the best kept trade secret process. Just look how vibrant the colours are especially the blues and yellows are. just take a look at the colours of re case hardened guns look on your side of the pond using same process. In the AA Brown video it is all there but missing a few important pieces of information.

Over here people are trying to replicate lc smith Parker colt fox colors that may be different from what you expect to see the main point is surface hardness with the least amount of warping

MC I was under the impression the subject of this posting is British Case Colouring! People may be trying to duplicate American case colours on your side of the pond so why the hell do they put them on English guns surely gunsmiths can have more than one methodology ? English action hardness has never been an issue as far as I can recollect and back to the AA Brown Video warping was also not an issue. So as I said there is something more in the process than heat Charcoal bone and water that at first look is simple but if you look deeper you will see that there is more in colour hardening than at first site.

We have a need over here for a knowledgeable craftsman able to consistently get good British style colors with a hard surface and little to no warping. Proper color hardening and correct colors remains on my list of skills I hope to develop one day. It is an incredibly interesting subject and my first impression is that while based on science, a good bit of it is art, similar to browning damascus barrels.

If you have more details to share about the British process I'm all ears Ernie. I understand that most British Craftsmen use a higher percentage of wood charcoal than the average American color hardener.