case coloring

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I have 2 of the 36-10's with the case colored frames. One 2" the other 3". If I had a project Smith that I wanted to have the frame case colored could it be done? Say a model 10 snubby
 
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Doug Turnbull is the guy to go to.

He did all of the Smith and Wesson Performance Center Heritage edition revolvers.

25-11-97cs.jpg


15-9ccls.jpg


15-8CCH1s.jpg
 
Case coloring is NOT the same as case colored hardening. Coloring can be done with acid so as not to warp via heat.
 
Turnbull wouldn't do one for me. It's one thing to case harden a DA during the manufacturing phase, another to disassemble/harden/reassemble.

SA's? You betcha.
 
Turnbull told me that they would not do any work on modern da S&W revolvers , not even polishing.
 
colt SAA......

I'd trade on of my 36-10 for that gun pictured.???
 
Case coloring with out the surface hardness can and is done.
The same process can be used, the bone/wood charcoal pack, the furnace, water quench, etc.
It's a balance of temp, time in furnace and quench techniques to get the colors w/o the hardness.

The advantage is less or no warping of the metal parts. No backers or reinforcement pieces needed to be inserted. Assembly was reletively easy though once in a while a part would warp. But the soft, non hardened surface made for easy refit.

The bad side of it is that the soft parts on a tightly fitted mechanism can gall and many started to show up with that problem.
Some hardness was needed especially on the low carbon steel shotgun frames and parts.

Ruger used a proprietary method to color their carbon steel SA frames. Not a case color/hardening method at all. A chemical coloring.
(Something similar was used on the Parker repro SxS shotguns from the late 80/early90's period.)
Turnbull tried to sell his CCH method and business to Ruger in the early 90's for use on their pistols but no taker.
 

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