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.
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03-11-2012, 01:06 PM
Hybrid Mode