Real Deal Case Colors
 

The way they were made.


Now I'm no expert, but I have wondered why we usually see color differences between the trigger plate and frame on internal hammer guns and the sideplates and frame on external hammer guns. So I have asked around and the responses from people who do case colors is that the frame must remain soft(er) than the plates in order to withstand firing shocks, so they are treated differently during the case hardening process. As a result, the plates retain color longer when exposed to wear.

Bruce Day, Parker beginner and aspiring neophite

Wouldn't the parts be all assembled during the CCH process?

No. Not at all. Each type of part is packed into the case hardening crucible separately. What I have learned is that the crucibles containing the various parts are not subjected to the same furnance time.

Deleted. I asked the same question and got my answer. Thanks.

Are you certain of that? I received regular orders from Colt, in West Hartford for these "crucible". In the case of Colt, they were a 5x5x10" box, cast in a martensitic alloy (called CA6-NM, for those that care) I have been in the heat treating department at Colts many times, and, at least in their case, the boxes aren't unclamped until back to room temperature.

The parts were strategically placed in the crucibles with bone, shards of hide and various other biologic 'packing' around the parts. The frame was not placed in the crucibles as an assembled unit.

After my last post, I decided Bruce is right, in that the parts, after the normalizing cycle at 1650-1700 degrees, get a temper/stress relieving cycle, at under 1125 degrees, in a controlled atmosphere furnace, and not in the boxes they are normalized in.
Dean is correct. They are individually heat treated. The secret to the color is in the packing, and composition of carbon bearing packing material.
I never hear anyone mention it today, but one of the old materials was horse manure. No $hit !

Most any carbon bearing material can produce the desired results.

My neice, an aspiring artist, fired this pretty piece of pottery packed predominantly in salt-marsh straw. So here we have a new twist on color heat treating.





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edger: your temperatures regarding hardening and tempering are most interesting and specific. are they specific to colt's process only?

bruce: your comments regarding the differences in how frames and trigger plates are processed is interesting and new to me. perhaps all parts are hardened to the same spec, but then tempered to different specs, depending on the amount of elasticity desired?

i am no expert either, but do find the subject of factory shotgun receiver hardening and coloring to be fascinating.

another thought on the subject:

early shotgun receivers were machined from solid blocks or billets of rolled steel.

floor plates, trigger plates and lock plates were no doubt made from sheets of much thinner bar stock.

could it be that the billets of rolled steel were of a different alloy than the thinner bar stock? if so, that could account for the difference in how the case colors developed and appeared on the different parts of the gun?

EDG, if you will look in The Parker Story, the key reference books for Parker enthusiasts, you will see on p. 427 photos of frame forgings and explanation of the hammer forging process.

A person can learn a lot about Parkers, restorations including correct charcoal color case hardening, and what is correct in Parkers, by study of TPS, which was written by experts on the Parker gun and the Charles Parker Company.

Bruce Day, no expert but I've read a lot, learned a lot from experts and been fortunate to have been around a lot of nice Parkers.

Dean,

I Don't want to drift off topic too much, but the picture you posted of your nieces vase is nice. I believe that this piece was Raku fired. This is a process where the clazed piece is fired to temp. and then removed at temp and then placed in a trash can with straw, hay, papers and other organtic materials. It creates a wonderful effect.

There is also an old Native american method called pit firing which is just the bare unglazed clay that is buried in a pit with a fire in other organic mateirals. And left to smolder for days. That process is very unpredictable, but can sometimes yield some great colors.

I was a Ceramic arts major in college. So it is a subject that I am familar with.

No, Ed, Temperatures for any heat treatment are specific to the metallurgy and the end result you want to achieve, not the manufacturer.
Those temps I referenced are typical for most Ni-Cr-Mo alloys with Carbon in the .20% to .30% range

I noticed on the PGCA 2012 raffle gun (10 ga hammer) the side plates retain much more CC than the action. Syracuse LC Smith's also age the same way, more color on the side plates versus the action. It must be the difference in steel and or the CC process. I have been told that the forging process modifies the grain of the metal resulting in some areas retaining cc better than others and some frames holding cc better than others. here is a Smith example of what I am talking about.
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t...DSC_0008-2.jpg

Same with the Syracuse Lefevers. The sidelocks/sideplates hold the case color much much better than the the frame does.

Best,

Mike

mike: wonder why that is? ed

Mike, :):)

wonder if one did a rockwell hardness test of harden lock plates and floor plates vs hardened receivers, would one find that the thinner metal lock plates and floor plates would be harder than the receiver...the theory being that thinner bar stock parts would in fact be harder than the thicker roll stock receivers? if so, perhaps harder metal retains case colors better and longer and than does less hard metal...all else being the same, of coarse.

Ed, :):)

color case
 

It is imposible to quickly explain all of the variables that effect color case hardening. Contrary to conjecture and rumor the process is controlable and predictable.

two constants in the process are: type of metal, machineing reliefs.
The type of metal cast, forged, or rolled dteel, absorb carbon at different rates. Rolled steel, due to molecular density absorbs more carbon than cast steel. Sideplates and triggerplates are usually rolled steel accounting for deeper, longer lasting colors. Recievers cast or forged, absorb less carbon or color affecting durability.
Machineing translates to repeatable patterns in like parts. In the heat up phase thick areas remain cooler than thin areas. at quench thick areas cool slower that thin areas. Two prime examples of this in Parkers are the center band of color on triggerplates at the point of machineing for the cocking slide. The centers of the water table flats at the hammer spring pockets.
Parker forearm irons form a distinctive pattern at the "T", we refer to this pattern as "antlers". This is created by drawback or outside cooling at quench.
Pin holes, screw holes and edges drawback or turn straw or grey due to rapid cooling.
Color ranges, contrast, machineing patterns and patina, are all controlled with process variations in packing materials, tempature,surface preperation and exposure to oxygen. A careful educated study of original specimens is the most important factor in creating a process formula. Every manufacturer used the same basic process. The secret ingredents were not magical or chemical. The variations were in process crontrols and specific steel types.
We utilize over 20 different process formulas to yiels specific colors and patterns by brand and era.

Brad

In a roundabout way, you're getting towards the answer. The thinner section parts receive a cycle time sufficient to reach the center of the mass, while heavier sectioned materials likely receiving the same duration 'soak', so not likely to reach the mass center. This is why thinner parts, whose shapes are more uniform, have a more uniformly colored surface, unlike receivers, whose colors vary directly in relation to the section thickness.
A part whose shape was achieved by forging, has a tighter grain structure than a part whose shape was formed by machining a cold rolled material, but, and a big but, the two parts have a substantially similar grain structure when the cool down from the 'soak' temperature begins, which is when the part absorbs any carbon-rich propertiess from the packing material.
You keep mentioning shotguns whose frames were made by machining a cold rolled bar, as opposed to a forging, and for the life of me, I can't think of any American made shotgun whose frame was not machined from a forged part. There were lots of well known forging companies, such as Billings & Spencer, who supplied near-net-shape parts to manufacturers who didn't have their own drop forging facility. The very logical reason is simply that machining time is much more expensive than forging to near net shape, then final machining less material.

brad: nice to hear from an expert.


"We utilize over 20 different process formulas to yield specific colors and patterns by brand and era"

a question. after quench do you ever temper back a receiver to increase elasticity, so as to avoid the possibility of cracking under the stress of firing? or is this step not necessary under your processes?

edgar: thanks for your input. i always learn from your posts.

I have no intention of representing my work as a metalurgist. My goal is to simply replicate the structural and cosmetic entity that these guns represented. When I hear of accounts of temps at 1500 t0 1700 degrees, Iam concerned as to the damage that some people are doing to these precious guns. The utilization of blocking and fixturing techniques to achieve certian patterns is wrong, if you think that the original manufacturers did this, you are wrong. Case hardening just did that. It imparted hardness to soft steel, in a machineable state. The people that did this process were interested in a certian apperance as much as a structural benefit.
Each of them were craftsmen, not metalurgists. There individual goals were to establish a trademark look, different than the competion. They certianly accomplished that. You can Church up or tech up the process as much as you want, the truth remains that the colors and patterns are a result of the process application, the craftsmens work.

Brad

[QUOTE=Brad Bachelder;64478] Two prime examples of this in Parkers are the center band of color on triggerplates at the point of machineing for the cocking slide. The centers of the water table flats at the hammer spring pockets.

Brad, thanks for answering the questions I had wondered about in the above quote. When I try and determine original Parker colors, those two things are what I try to analyze. Sometimes the center band of color may or may not be real noticeable but the water table flats usually are.

Perhaps you can also comment on an observation concerning recased colors is that usually the recased colors have too much straw around the edges of the frame where darker Parker colors go right to the edge. Parkers had very little straw colors in my opinion.

Bruce,

What's the maufacture date on that B grade? My DH, made in 1903, has almost all of it's original case colors and from a distance you'd swear the receiver was blued until you got up close, then the dark blues and reds started to become apparent.

Just to be clear, My comments were not intended to represent myself as a gunsmith, experienced or otherwise. A gunsmith is truly a craftsperson. Any temperature ranges I quoted are from experience from production methods used in the heat treatment of steels, in a cast state. Ultimately, the desired hardness and ductility was the determining factor is arriving at them. The colors were a byproduct of the surface hardening to prevent wear of the newly engraved surfaces. Machining and engraving is done while the part is in a softer, annealed state, and the final combination of the parts hardness, strength and ductility aren't achieved until all heating/ cooling cycles are done. The craftsman are those that take the basic information, and modify it to the desired end. The temperature ranges I quoted are, in fact those used by Colt, as explained to me by their personnel, when arriving at an alloy for their boxes. It's important to note that they were the first normalizing cycles the parts were exposed to, and not necessarily those a gun being restored would see. As the old adage says "The proof of the pudding is in the eating". Anyone who is able to replicate the colors imparted as the original manufacturer offered up, in my book, is the guy who gets my vote, and Brad Batcheldor's work, in my estimation, represents the best i have seen out there.
As many of us have seen in the last few weeks, The upcoming James Julia auction has a half dozen Colt Calvary models coming up, whose colors are as close to original, if they aren't actually original. That I believe they are actual Colt restorations, it makes no difference, as their work today is no different than it was 120 years ago. Long before they had a department called 'The Custom Shop', my dad had Colt restore a martial piece, and it looks today just like those shown in the Julia auction, no more, no less.

Chuck,
Excellent observation, Parkers are overall very dark. The absense of straw, green and yellow are due to packing material, run temp and quench. Parkers colors are subtle and washed unlike the vivid multi-hue colors of late production Smiths.
In fully engraved Parkers with 90% original colors it very hard to see any color at all.
Brad

I must respectfully disagree.

Every pro I have ever talked to case colors their frames fully assembled, right down to the screws in the timed position. I have seen a couple examples of frames that were case colored while disassembled, and the results were poor and obvious. Picture a jig saw puzzle of colorful scenery with several pieces force fitted in the wrong places. The colors didn't flow or match across the seams, top lever and screw heads. Definitely not professional results.

Dr Gaddy and CSMC case colored fully assembled frames, and Dr Gaddy used stainless steel perforated shielding to concentrate colors and regulate patterns with great success. I have copied his methods with good repeatable results too. The factories didn't do that, according to Dr Gaddy, because they quenched many frames at once and that held the charcoal against the frames during the quench, which is criticial to achieve colors other than gray.

For guns like Parkers where vivid colors and jagged patterns are not desired, I have devised a different process where the steel is kept fully embedded in the charcoal mix during the entire quench. I have only tried it on one Parker, my own mismatched G grade shooter with decent, but not perfect, results. Photo below.

I suspect that colors first wear off the bottoms and edges of guns for the same reason why bluing wears off trigger guards, triggers and safety buttons first--because those areas all receive the most handling wear. Also, the application of more protective lacquer in some areas over others could have something to do with it too. Additionally, some prior owner of the gun might have deliberately polished the colors off certain areas of the gun while leaving them in others to achieve a desired "look".....who knows?

In any event, I do find case coloring to be a fascinating process, and look forward to learning as much as I can about it.

I have had color work done on a few guns by Malcom Clark (who used to work for CMSC) and I am sure that he also colors fully assembled. I am sure it has been done both ways. That is why I originally posed that question.

Original Trojans. So do the experts believe that these demonstrate that the action frames and floorplates were case color hardened as a combined unit?


Bruce Day, Parker learner's permit applicant

I'm not one of those experts to whom reference is made by any stretch, but photos 1 and 2 above seem to show color patterns flowing evenly over the seams between the frame and floor plate. Photo 3 gives one some pause, with that big splotch of blue on the frame but not extending onto the floor plate. But I suspect that to be the result of the comparative thickness of the steel of the frame as compared to the floor plate, as cooling rates in the quench impact color formation (according to Dr. Gaddy), and the thinner areas like the plate are going to cool faster than the thickest portion of the frame. The couple of guns that I've seen that were clearly case colored while disassembled were very obvious. Picture one of the guns shown above with a gray screw head surrounded by a splotch of solid blue on the frame. Or a vivid patch of blue on the trigger plate coming to an abrupt end at the seam and meeting a solid gray patch with no hint of blue on the frame. They looked as obvious as a blue car with a red replacement door that hadn't yet been repainted to match. Most folks would have just looked at those guns and declared that the case colors looked bad, not knowing what process led to the displeasing result. But anyone who had ever done any case coloring work would know instantly that the poor results were due to disassembled case coloring.

If I can be forgiven for enjoying LC Smiths too, below are two photos that are illustrative of the point. The first shows an old LC grade 2E that I rescued from the parts heap and fully restored. You can see how the color pattern clearly flows across the lock plate seam like a photo on a jig saw puzzle. That could never be accomplished if the gun were not case colored while fully assembled. The second photo shows the bottom of a gun I also colored (not sure which one it was), which has a gray splotch on the frame but not across the seam on the trigger plate. Of course, this gun too was colored while fully assembled, so that anomaly is attributable to some other factor than assembly vs disassembly. Dr Gaddy concluded in his articles that the way the water washes over the parts of the gun when the hot steel hits the quench and causes a small steam explosion is the single biggest factor in determining color pattern formation, and that aspect of the process is never going to be fully controllable. That is why every case coloring result is as unique as a snow flake or finger print, and in my view, what also makes case colors so fascinating to behold; preferably original, but also quality restorations as well. It should also be remembered that Remington changed its coloring process on Parkers in the late years. Whatever process one would use to get those cynide wash patterns is likely very different from the true bone charcoal case coloring process that I am talking about, and may account for some of the information floating around about parts being colored separately from the rest of the frame. I don't know anything about that process, to be sure.

I would agree with the belief that recievers were cased in an assembled state.
I have repeatably tried Dr. Gadys process and decided not to incorporate it in our process. I am convinced that much of the shielding he used was to limit warpage. Exposure to free oxygen turns cased metal silver or grey. Controlling this exposure results in more uniform coverage and less grey.
Pre 1913 Smiths and pre Remington Parkers have the same overall dark look, indicating that the same quench process was used.
Many people do not realize that the colors and patterns evolved the years. To properly restore, one must study the exact process used at the time of manufacture. We have indentified three different process variations within Parkers history, not counting Remingtons change to the Cyanide process. Pre and post Smiths are distinctly different in colors and patterns. This is atributable to introducing charred leather to the process, containing a high level of cyanide.
I would agree that every piece of metal,cased, has a unique pattern, however uniformity, color range and contrast are totally controlable.
Annealing and tempering play a big role in the process.
Metal prep is critical to the end result. Parkers were not coated.To achieve the correct patina the metal prep is totally different than those parts that are to be coated.

Brad

Bruce, I see no evidence, in the original Trojan examples you show, that the color case-hardening process was done with the parts assembled.

assembled or not
 

A quick way to determine how parts were run is to drop the triggerplate from a highly colored reciever. The forward portion of the plate is mostly protected from charcoal when cased assembled. The rear of the plate is exposed and open.You will notice a difference In the protected area. If the reciever and triggerplate were run seperately the inside would totally match the outside.

Brad

brad: your depth of knowledge on this subject is amazing!

however, i do wish you would answer my question directly re tempering after quench. do you ever do it and if so when? and if you never do it, then why not?

Ed
Sorry I did not answer your question. Tempering and annealing are very important parts of our process. Every reciever is handled differently, the determining factor is the specific hardness before and after processing.

Brad

EDG is well known as one of the most prolific advocates and users of the torch and oil process for applying colors to Parker frames.

bruce: not sure what your post has to do with this topic...
however, you are mistaken. i do no gun work of any kind.
dont have the skill nor the patience.

speaking of patience. you started a wonderful thread here. do not trash it by going off on some tangent which leads to no where.