Who would be good at doing these? Is there someone I can send a frame to be colored? What is the prep work that needs to be done before coloring? Any help would be great!

You may consider talking to Doug Turnbull in New York.
Only my suggestion as I have no experience with Mr. Turnbull's
capabilities. My only reference is his ads and so forth.

Roger

Think Mr. Turnbull's style is a little loud for British case colors.
Styles do vary based on casehardening material, temperatures, etc.
Look at pictures, find something that suits you and contact the person.
Each will different and no two pieces will be the same.
Chuck

Any idea who I might be able to contact?

You will want to anneal the action first, then polish to 320-400 grit, I like to use a fine wire wheel as final prep.

I use Classic Guns in Crete IL.

You can also contact:

https://powersmetalworks.com/gun-services

http://www.wyomingarmory.com/cch.html

I would advise taking advice from who ever you select to do the work . Some will want to prep themselves others will just re-case what ever you send .Ask first .

Chuckster,
Turnbull does different styles to match differing factory styles. If you think his style is too loud, more than likely the advertisements of his work on Winchesters influenced your thinking.
Mike

Mike,
You may be correct about Turnbull, Just have not seen enough of his work.
Al Springer at http://smbgunrestorations.com/ does some beautiful work.
My personal favorite is Mike Hunter at http://www.mikehunterrestorations.com/
Chuck

Many of us understand that the colors vary from brand to brand in vintage American guns. But, I don't believe I have ever heard it addressed as to whether this is the case with British vintage guns, to the extent of American. I have most often seen it said, when referencing the subject, "British colours", as if there were more uniformity in them, from name to name, than in American guns.

Would someone knowledgeable about this please offer their opinions, experiences?

Thanks, SRH

Stan that would make sense in view of the practice of having case hardening outsourced. Truth is though, I have no idea...Geo

If we don't get an answer here I will move the question over to the main forum. Several Brits post there regularly.

Dig Hadoke told me 11 years ago that the one guy to go to for correct "British colours" is Ray St. Ledger.

SRH

Ray's gone.....

http://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=381437

Yes, he is, and I should have used the past tense. Last I heard his son Richard was carrying on the business. Hopefully he learned a lot from his father.

SRH

Before the time I realised that working on gun stocks was more a thing I was suited to I did try colour case hardening. After a number of tries things went well, then a cracked receiver made me rethink things along the lines of this is not for you. Though I am one of those people who will research a subject as far as I can before I start and a long time after the initial idea has physically been superseded buy something else more interesting. also I am a compulsive note maker not to mention a working diary.
Now if there are secrets to colour hardening I dont know of any but there are a few not so talked about things that go to making a repeatable signature look to the finished work, with her emphasis on repeatable. But the not so good part is that you have to experiment to get your signature finished look.
I used 6" X 4" X 1/4" mild steel plate for experimentation. Now the carbon packing we all know is charcoal and bone carbon but that is just a common mix you can purchase. But like an artist there are other things you can add to the basic mix that does alter the final look of the case hardened metal. Here are some that can be added, carbonised Leather, powdered anthracite, In times past carbonised Ivory turnings, Carbonised hoof and horn. and one I found added some lighter colours, carbonised blood fish and bone garden fertiliser, though it does give off some not so nice smells when heating to carbonise it.
The quenching water, Rainwater is best because it has no minerals to complicate things or change the finished colours. At the point before you drop in the hot metal stir the water violently or better still have air blowing through the water to churn it. And finally it was said that adding Salt Peter (Potassium Nitrate) to the water would brighten the finished colours.
I hope this may be of interest though it is all experimentation for quantities, one thing I omitted was making your own charcoal from the same wood every time removes another variation that could make things non repeatable.

Thank you, damascus. Some interesting insights to the art. That repeatability is what I thought I have noticed in most English maker's case-colors. Even though each may have/had their own "secrets", there may have been much more uniformity to the trade in England than over here.

SRH

I’ve been doing the CCH thing for a few years, (close to 20). Anytime I hear about using leather or horn/hoofs in the CCH mix, I chuckle and move on. I don’t think any serious practitioner of CCH, or any manufacturer would use those sorts of products in their CCH.

Hooves and horns are made up of Keratin, the same thing hair is made up of, leather is primarily Collagen and Elastin, neither is a good case hardening compound.

There’s several different ways to tan leather, chromium salts, vegetable tanning, brain tanned, each one has different chemicals which will change the outcome.

Horn/hooves? Just the sheer amount of crap that’s in them … rocks, nails, dirt…and literal crap that makes them a bad choice

Well Hunter you seem to want to bring age into things but I see you are a beginner, I have been clicking guns and working on them for some seventy years possibly before your good self was a twinkle in your mothers eye, though they do say you can get young fools as well as old ones. Horne Leather and hoof are all carbon based as is life on this little ole Planet, as is hair and your good self for that matter and can all be carburised (turned to carbon). Lets see what you make of sugar? I feel that investments in some good books on organic chemistry would not come amiss.
You are to quick with the word Crap, I would like to use the words you are talking as Verbal Diarrhoea? Just so you know there is more than one way to skin a cat, because you reside on the other side of the pond does not make you all knowledgeable in fact far from it, and why you need to use derogatory terms when the English language has a fine Latin based words to describe any item or situation. From what you have said I have a good idea where you use the rocks nails and crap is it to tan your leather. I feel that you should read what I have written! Not what you think I have written!

Kind Regards

Damascus

I’ve been doing case hardening “Commercially” for the past 20 years, sorry if I did not articulate that well enough.

When I decided to offer CCH as a shop service, I spent about a year figuring it out. I would take mild steel blanks (SAE 1018), grind them on the surface grinder to ensure that they were flat (+/- .0001) then case harden them adjusting the variables one at a time: Hardening temp, time, wood bone ratios, quench tank size, O2 levels, drop distance, quench water temp etc.…

I did quite a few drops, as many as 3 a day. After each quench I would check for colors, hardness and warpage.

I also tried some of the secret recipes:

Hoof material: I have a small horse ranch, so I’m somewhat familiar with hooves as I have to clean them and trim them quite often. The sheer amount of garbage that gets imbedded into the hoofs: rocks, nails, dirt manure etc.… they are nasty, and no good way to clean them. They are also made out of keratin, same as hair and fingernails.

Leather char… what an abomination: I once made some specialized tooling for a custom saddle maker, as payment I asked for some scrap leather, I ended up with two 55 gallon drums full of heavy, saddle grade leather.

There ae several ways to tan leather, Chromium, tannic acid, etc.… All add chemicals to the leather. Or you can opt for untanned rawhide (think dog chew toy).

To make a short story long, I decided to char some leather; I took a tightly packed shoe box sized amount and put it in a crucible and cranked it up to 1600 F. That’s a day that will be etched in my mind forever… The smell and smoke was horrendous, think that burning hair smell on a massive scale. Adding insult to injury, leather doesn’t carbonize in the normal sense but rather melts. What I found in my container, was not powder or leather that could be crumbled, but a substance that resembled hardened lava that stuck to the interior of the crucible. Once I chipped the majority of the charred leather out, I had to sandblast the remainder out. So, for a shoebox sized amount, I ended up with about ¾ cup of leather char.

In the end, I did try the leather char, the result… No better or different than standard bone charcoal.

Hooves/Horns (cow/horse) too dirty, and made of keratin.

Ivory, too expensive and made out of tooth material… very sililar to bone.

Powdered Anthracite: simple coal dust.

Leather… have fun with that

Respectfully

Mike