A friend bought a Birmingham single shot hammer gun. It was loose. He sent it to David Yale to be tightened: three times. David finally figured out that the case hardening had been undone and that the action was soft and bending. David didn't charge him anything for the additional work and refunded his previous payments. But my friend has been collecting doubles for thirty years and shot and collected old muzzleloaders before that. David Yale is an experienced gunsmith. It took these two experienced gun men quite awhile to figure out what was going on. It kept going loose. The bending of the softened action was hard to detect.
I repeat; When I see a gun that has been case colored I always wonder if the guy that did it knew what he was doing.
I think the safest thing to do is to not harden or color.
Best,
Mike
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