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Originally Posted by Aaron Beck
Thanks Dean and Bruce. That makes sense but if they are only found on older guns then I might still think iron. Do you see that on guns after 1900 or so? You can see ghosting of forging process in both iron and steel but the two materials show it differently. Though forging temp can be a factor too.
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If I’m not mistaken you can’t readily case harden iron due to the high carbon content. Case hardening works by putting high carbon material next to low carbon material at a high temp to encourage carbon migration. The bigger the carbon difference the better the result (and some other factors). As to why the striations disappeared after 1900 or so - i would chalk that up to process inovation. There is value to eliminating those striations therefore company’s producing parts would want to eliminate them.
From my engineering perspective, I would probably spec in a low to mid carbon steel (1018 or 1045 ish?)…Generally speaking the receiver sees minimal load if the action is tight. The hinge pin and closure mechanism take the brunt. The loading of the receiver is spread out across the surface area of the shell and absorbed well by the hardened layer. The highest point of stress is at the corner of the action, and it would be subject to fatigue failure so a steel without a fatigue knee defined would be ideal. I’ll have to see if I can find my old stress analysis simulations from college. It was interesting stuff.