How NOT to case harden a Parker
This forend iron belongs to a Parker that was restored and color case hardened by a well know company here in the Northeast that will remain unnamed. I purchased the gun a couple years ago. 2 weeks ago I decided to take it out and shoot a couple boxes through it. Upon taking the gun apart to clean and put away I noticed these cracks in the forend iron. My first course of action was to completely disassemble the gun to examine it for other fractures or cracks. I could not see any other visible damage but was highly concerned. I called a metallurgist friend who owns a machine shop in my town. He agreed to examine the frame and forend iron. Not only did he find the forend iron was through hard, he also found the frame to be equally as hard and the roll joint was fractured as well. I then brought the parts to a local gunsmith to have the parts annealed so Fred could magnaflux the parts. Fortunately all the parts are fine except the forend iron and joint roll. The forend iron has already been mapped on the optical comparator and is going in the gas box tomorrow to be micro tog welded. I intentionally am posting pictures of the annealed parts so as not to give away the obvious. I guess the moral is be very careful when it comes to re-case hardening parts!
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