Restored Damascus

[Travis Sims]

Phil........i want to go!

[Dave Miles]

Here's a picture of a P grade Bachelders did the case colors and the barrel.
Looks to me like the receiver was dirty or had oil spots left on it during the process?

[Phil C]

Travis after the great job you did on my barrels how could I possible ever say no. I will be posting my DH completed project this weekend.

Phil

[Travis Sims]

Phil........i just have to get there right?

[Phil C]

That's right, and be sure to bring your good hunting boots. My GSP's can cover a lot of ground.

[Parker Bachelder (Brad's Profile)]

Originally Posted by Dave Miles

Here's a picture of a P grade Bachelders did the case colors and the barrel.
Looks to me like the receiver was dirty or had oil spots left on it during the process?

Here is a sample of our bone charcoal color case. Dave's P grade receiver was done with a different process using tricalcium phosphate color enhancing. In that process the gun isnt restored like it would be in traditional bone charcoal color case hardening. Rather it is a less expensive way to add some color to a shiny shooter. Our traditional bone charcoal process involves tireless hours of polishing, as well as total degreasing. Here is a very similar P grade we recently totally restored.

[Dave Miles]

Well, I received a phone call from Brad Bachelder. And in all fairness to Brad, he wasn’t aware of the situation, and has offered to redo the case colors, at no charge. Which seems more than fair to me.

[Bruce Day]

Original Parker color case hardening.

The original colors are difficult to duplicate although I have seen it done. Bone charcoal case coloring does it best although a skilled applicator with the cyanide process can come very close. Cyanide processes do not have to result in tiger stripes and gaudy colors. I am not familiar with other coloring processes.

Highly engraved surfaces do not hold the colors as well as non engraved surfaces, but regardless there is a tendency to get the colors too thick and heavy so that they look painted on. Jay Shachter showed me some of Brad's work at the UP shoot that Jay had on display and I thought it was pretty good.

Its very hard to judge case colors from photos and without the gun in hand, as so much depends upon lighting. For example, the B shown below can under some light conditions look dark whereas it looks light in the below photo.

[Travis Sims]

Sweet pics Bruce!

[Dean Romig]

Bruce, which of those pictured have been recolored and which are original?