doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Bone Charcoal Color Case Hardening Question

I am definitely on a posting binge tonight.

Had the chance last summer to visit Doug Turnbull's operation, located only about 1 1/2 hours drive from me, and was given a two plus hour tour of the operation by Doug's number one man. It's a great operation with really nice, friendly and talented people who were very willing to answer our hundreds of questions.

The bone charcoal case coloring operation was of course not on the tour as it is one of his secrets which I totally understand. Since that visit I have really come to appreciate what he can do there and how distinctive his coloring is, and now I have a question.

Galazan had a number of finished RBL 20's on his site a few months back and the color cased examples made me think it was Turnbull's. I don't know if Turnbull does this for the RBL's, but did note that the RBL colors appear very consistent between all the frames. That is, the same colors appear in the same areas of the frames between examples, but with slight variations of course. This is quite different from the case colors on other high quality makers guns where gun to gun the coloring varies to a much wider extent.

Are specific colors more likely to show up in specific areas because of the metal thickness at those spots? Is the consistency seen on the RBL's due to the frames all being oriented in the charcoal box in the same position?

Don't know how I keep coming up with all of these obscure questions, but I am always looking to add to my technical knowledge,

I am definitely on a posting binge tonight.

Me too. I belive the different case colors are due to the amount of bone charcoal to wood charcoal and the amount of time in the furnace.

I dont know who color case hardens the frames for Galazan, maybe it is even in house? Anyways, as far as the colors being similar on each action, that is possible because each frame would be run exactly like the one before it. This will not however produce exactly the same pattern in any "areas", that is impossible with color case hardening. Colors and patterns will be very similar, but never the less random.

I assume uniformity is helped along by proper "packing". I believe Oscar Gaddy explained all that with illustrations in one or more of his articles. In a volume operation like the RBL shop, I'm sure there are enough sets of identical packing blocks for each furnace full of receivers.

When we had the PGCA tour of Tony's old facility we saw the case hardening operation. I haven't been to the new place.

I got to see Classic Guns http://www.classicgunsinc.com/ operation a couple of years ago. At the time, they had a commercial contract going. Virtually all the receivers were unique, but all had the same range of colors. As others have stated, it is matter of uniformity. New receivers they should all take the process pretty much the same. If every gun is exactly the same, then it most likely is not case coloring.

There is nothing secret about the process. It is widely known and taught. It is much more a matter of skill from doing hundreds of guns over the years. I will say that the work area can be rather dirty because of all the charcoal. Also, if the ovens were in operation, it would not have been safe to have people wandering around.

Pete

I have to agree with PeteM in that there is nothing secret about Color Case Hardening. Dr. Oscar Gaddy's work pretty much covered it all and did so much to help guys like us to pursue CCH as an art form. Everybody has there own way of doing things, but there is no secret.

Someone once said: "A man who works with his hands is a laborer, A man who works with his hands and mind is a craftsman, BUT, A man who works with his hands, mind and heart is an artist!".

That is what Dr. Gaddy gave to us, he worked with his hands, mind and heart.

I believe that there are a few folks out there that do most of the work for most of the big names. I know that most of the barrel work may go to the west coast or east coast but ends up in Texas at Kirk Meringtons,many have learned to skip the middle man as Kirk charges the same no matter who sends the work. I know Simmons does the color work for some big names so you can skip the middle man there also.

Does anyone know what the RBL receiver is made from? Is it a traditional low carbon steel, case hardened to provide durability? Or is it a through hardening alloy like 4140? The coloring process will be much different depending on which is used.

OB

The RBL actions are machined from 4140.