Gentlemen, my curiosity is getting the better of me now with all this talk of case hardening and re casing...

How thick is case hardening, are we talking thousanths of an inch or 1/8"s of an inch ? or even more - does the hardening go right through an action?

Also is it possible to engrave a case hardened action without annealing it first? I realise that it may be possible if you are prepared to sacrifice your tools, but are there any other detrimental considerations??

Jonty