Allen, Oscar Gaddy (now deceased) published an exhaustive study and description of the case coloring of firearms in a 4-part series in the Double Gun Journal. (See Vol. 7, Issue 4 and Vol. 8, Issues 1,2, and 3. Much of his work centered on the esoteria of the molecular structure of metals, their properties of elasticity, hardness or softness, sentitivity to temperature ranges during the case coloring process, and the resulting appearances rendered by these various processes. I have always viewed the case coloring of firearms using the cyanide process analogous to that of coloring Easter eggs - too much or too little dye misses the desired hue, while the vagaries of temperature ranges can produce too much or not enough of the proper color.
Case coloring by the bone charcoal method began as basic alchemy (eye of weasel, toe of newt) but was refined over the centuries until the interested parties "got it right", so to speak, depending on the style and vogue of firearms finishing at the time of production. That is, bright shiny, showy colors vs. the very subdued and mottled patterns. Nowadays, more than a few (here meaning more than 3) outfits engaged in case coloring guns come very close to mimicking original factory colors (of either bone charcoal or cyanide) and continue to produce some beautiful work. Oscar struggled but persevered as the dedicated scientist he was, seeking perfection with the bone charcoal method, and the longer he persisted, the better the results. Unfortunately, he died about the time he was doing his best work. His better examples are truly lovely and some of our members are fortunate enough to own them.
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