case hardening a polished trigger at home.

[twomoons]

folks ,
dont laugh at me. but i could have swore ,on the old forum, i saw several posts about guys who had done some case hardening at home on trigger and hammers. but i cant pull up the old posts.
i think i read where guys had heated a peice to a certain degree in a oven took it out and put oil or water on the peice.
cant remember for sure.
appreciate any help

 

[mkk41]

Are ya after hardness or colors? True color case hardening requires knowing what type of steel ya got , and packing it in a steel box with some type of natural carbon (ground bone , charred leather , certail oils) , or a commercial case-hardening compound , heating it to very high temp 1500+ , and letting it 'soak'. This imparts carbon to the steel , in a very hard but very thin or shallow skin or 'case'. Case-hardening is usually done to relatively soft , low-carbon steels.

Modern chrome-moly steels do not take color case hardening well. The finish on the new Rugers is done with acids.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_hardening

 

[OKFC05]

Brownells has all the goodies for case hardening on small or large scale:
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/cid=.../ksubmit=y/Products/All/search=case_hardening

 

[Milton]

I have used Kasenit several times on cheap Eye-talian BP guns.It works fine if you have a good torch but it will only leave the steel a gray color and will not color it.

 

[WR Moore]

I do believe that I saw advertising for something that supposedly allows you to color case in the home. I strongly doubt it. There may be some color, but it probably lacks depth and/or brightness of color.

mkk41's description of case hardening is accurate, but coloration is doubtful. The color case process I'm familiar with uses cyanide salts to produce the colors. This is definately NOT a do-it-yourself process.

Kase-Nit and similar products will produce a good case hardening if you follow directions.

 

[twomoons]

guys,
what i have is a model 14 that is really nice 3 ttt's. but the owner polished the face of the trigger, not the sides, just the face,the case harden color on sides is mostly gray, so all ineed is to get the face of trigger gray again
any suggestions????

 

[mkk41]

guys,
what i have is a model 14 that is really nice 3 ttt's. but the owner polished the face of the trigger, not the sides, just the face,the case harden color on sides is mostly gray, so all ineed is to get the face of trigger gray again
any suggestions????

Ya could do what we call 'blue temper' or 'straw color'. Polish and clean the piece free of oils , and very carefully with a low flame , heat part till it turns a light golden straw color and dip quickly in a can of oil. Ya can probably get to a plum color safely without further tempering (softening) and losing critical hardness which keeps the sear edge from wearing , if ya hold the main portion of the trigger between some aluminum blocks to act as a heat sink. This is how they did small parts (safety,trigger) on early Lugers

 

[Wayne M]

In your case I think I'd use some cold blue. The color won't match the sides in the beginning(probably be lots darker) but as you use the gun eventually you won't notice a difference. I lay the edges down on all my case hardened triggers and round the front(bottom) edges also. Polish things up to get rid of the small grind marks then cold blue and oil. After a little trigger time everything blends together very nicely. I know it's being done all the time but before heating hardened parts I'd leave things shiny. Supersticious, I guess.

 

[twomoons]

WAYNE, GUYS, I AGREE, I DONT WANT TO HEAT UP THE WHOLE TRIGGER. just get some color back on front of trigger
thanks for advice,

 

[HEADKNOCKER]

I'd suggest as others have said to Cold Blue the face of the trigger too..
Here's a small video from Midway USA that shows this & cold blue is what they use.. Looks pretty good to me..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32dmdX478eM