OK, who's got some experience with case coloring

[blckhrn]

To make a long story short, because of a sort of a challenge, I am building a Creedmoor type rolling block on a Spanish action that was GIVEN /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif to me (freebies are the best). The only thing that I am farming out is threading and cutting the barrel for extractor and breech block.

I've found instructions on doing this the way the armories did in the 19th century and am making a dummy action out of cold rolled steel as well as a block to prevent warping although this might be unnecessary. Still, better safe than sorry.

I'd like to know if anyone here has tried this and what the results were. Also if your instructions differ from mine maybe other methods will work better. I'm pasting one of the recipes below, another one I found is similar with the addition of saltpeter to the quench water and also performing any charring of the reactants during rather than before the process. Here it is;

Supposedly a pretty good color case can be applied by first charing old leather and then grinding it to a fine powder. Take the part to be hardened and pack it in a steel container with a close fitting lid with a mixture of bone meal and the powdered chard leather. Put the lid on and heat to a red heat for fifteen or twenty minutes. Then immediately dump into a container of cold water with air bubbling through it ( a small tube with holes in the bottom of the water container hooked to an air line). This is supposedly the method used by the earlier government arsenals and produced a fair color finish and hardness. I haven't tried this yet but plan to soon. If you attempt it practice first on some scrap steel as the time of heating and amount of bonemeal and leather used vary the result.

Appreciate any help here.

 

[Zonie]

Not me, but that looks like the process I've read about.

To me, it sounded like a lot of work in an area that has to have some secrets which can make the difference between something that looks good and something that looks like a disaster.
I have never seen much information beyond what you describe but I wonder, do you just mix the leather char and bone meal or do you put it in layers to get the different color effects?

As this is a case hardening process, I am sure you have to take the lid off of the container right before dumping it into the quenching water.
I can't see myself removing a red hot lid from a pile of red hot charcoal and red hot steel, and plunking it into a bucket of cold water, but then again, that's just me.

After you try it, perhaps you can let us know what you find.

By the way, in SSE I believe there are people who specialize in this process. If your interested, I will try to find them for you.

 

[musketman]

All I can say is, try it with scrap metal first...

Why take a chance with the good stuff when wondering into uncharted lands...

 

[blckhrn]

I've found instructions on doing this the way the armories did in the 19th century and am making a dummy action out of cold rolled steel as well as a block to prevent warping although this might be unnecessary. Still, better safe than sorry.

Damn, I hate aol or whoever waits for me to type out a long response and then won't let me upload. This is the scond time typing this (anything over five sentences is long forme, I'm a hunt'n pecker)

Since there are only three variables this looks doable to me. The ratio of leather to bone, time and temp. Since irregular quenching is what causes the different colors, the idea, as I understand it, is to throw the whole box and all into the quench (I asked the same question when I first read the process about opening the box). I hope to have done enough forge work to at least get a regular red from final experiment to actual hardening of my action. Besides which, I use a variable speed electric leaf blower for bellows and can pretty much build and blow air into the same fire repeatedly.

As for ugly colors, they can be wet sanded off, the process only has a depth measured in microns. Where people get into trouble is, for example, hardening sideplates (i.e. L.C.Smith or Lefever locks) which can warp. Since the walls on the RB action are about 5/16 thick this shouldn't be a problem but I am still filling as much of the action with steel as I can, including filling the receiver ring. If I have any doubts, I'll send it out, it was free but free don't = disposable. The action was only slightly frosted with rust, hammer shows little wear, all in all it's worth at least a couple hundred.

What got me started on this project was some know it all who I was trying to buy an action from. Emailed the blowhard telling him I wanted a Creedmoor in 45 120. He basically told me I wa an idiot because that load is known for extreme recoil (so what, it can be loaded down, you can't load a 45 90 up). He went on to say I should scrap the whole thing and buy a friend's rifle for $3500. Then he itemized his costs to build one. To make a long story short he farmed everything out, wood, case colors, everything.

There are certainly some sympathetic ears here, so I'll tell you what I told him, that his rifles were so expensive because he couldn't do anything by himself. Then I told him I'd allow $300 for the action and still have what I want under $1000. Machining will be a big part of that, I'd try it myself but no lathe. Needless to say I never even got a price on the action. Fine, I got one free.

Hope to be sending him an email with a pic of my rifle within a year but the job may be taking me away from my shop.

 

[blckhrn]

BTW, the friend in above post is a good guy and has been very helpful. It's just that, if I spend 3500 on something I can make for my figure I won't be able to buy that BMG I want.