edger: your post is interesting. what is a typical lower critical temperature for shotgun receivers of pre ww2 vintage?
you are correct, i do not know the particulars of old ed's recoloring process. what i do know is that i have sold dozens guns over the years that have had their receivers re colored by old ed...i have yet to hear of one that failed and i have yet to have a complaint from one of my customers regarding old ed's work. so what ever he is doing, he is not damaging guns and people who own guns that he has worked on like his work or they would not buy the ones i have for sale.
also, rereading your post reminded me of a conversation i had with old ed years ago. you both said essentially the same thing. in addition, as i recall, old ed's problem with the use of the high heat bone charcoal process re shotgun receivers, relates to the inconsistency of shotgun receiver metallurgy and the lack of available information regarding various manufacturers original factory heat treating specifications...so anyone, attempting to duplicate factory heat treating is going by trial and error or are just guessing and hoping for the best outcome.
the trade off here is do you run the risk of damaging the receiver beyond salvage by re heat treating the metal? or do you play it safe and just re color the receiver without changing the original factory heat treating and case hardening? i prefer to play it safe.
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