Polished Case Hardened Parts?

[413Maxwedge]

I recently purchased a "Polished Steel" hammer and trigger for K frames. They are beautiful and shine like a chrome bumper. The seller tells me they are case-hardened that he has polished.

Without the original dark outer layer, will these quickly develop surface rust?

Thanks

 

[Muley Gil]

I recently purchased a "Polished Steel" hammer and trigger for K frames. They are beautiful and shine like a chrome bumper. The seller tells me they are case-hardened that he has polished.

Without the original dark outer layer, will these quickly develop surface rust?

Thanks

Keep them oiled or waxed.

 

[stansdds]

Definitely keep them waxed or oiled. The color case hardening is a surface finish which, like a blued finish, provides some protection against corrosion. When polished to a silver finish, the surface protection is gone, that's bare steel looking back at you.

 

[Model29-26.5]

You could try bluing them to yourself On the stove?
Check out some methods/bluing saltsTechniques on YouTube for this.
Of course, any of the areas that rub at all on other parts Will get stripped of the blue immediately, But the rest will at least have a Headstart. You’ll still have to keep them oiled, But it might help a little.
I don’t know what the rest would say about this, but me being a tinkerer, I’d give it a shot and talk to a local gunsmith first.
I’d certainly be interested to hear what others say about this as I am here to learn, too.

 

[Nick B]

I looked at a beautiful 29-2 with the 6.5” barrel that someone had taken the hammer and trigger and polished them to a mirror finish and then jeweled. I passed on the sale .

 

[2152hq]

Make sure the case hardening hasn't been polished thru in the areas of the sear engagement and the like.
The Case Color hardness layer is very thin,,a couple of .000"

Once the hardness layer,,the 'case' is gone, it's nothing but soft steel and engagement surfaces will wear easily.

A sharp fine cut file should skip right off of the surfaces like a piece of glass if the case hardening itself is still there.
The file will grab and bite into the softer steel inner core if it has been exposed.

As far as protecting the polished surfaces, treat them like any other carbon steel surface you wish not to have it rust.
Bluing, case hardening colors even parkerizing don't prevent carbon steel from rusting. They have limited abilitys to hold lube some protection on the surfaces due to how they are applied. Some better than others.
The surface polish under those finishes can help if they are less than a mirror shine. They will hold oil on the surface better than the mirror smooth surface.

Very high polish presents a surface that can rust easily mostly because many will wipe the surfaces clean of any coating to expose the best and brightest brilliance of the polish. They are shiny and you want them to shine!
There goes any protection.
Wax often is the best choice for high polish carbon steel that has no real job other than to look nice.
Even when wiped down, you are still left with a coating of wax if it's decent stuff.

 

[steelslaver]

The polished steel parts will not rust nearly as fast as steel with a rough finish. Less surface area for oxidation to start.

If you take a piece of carbon steel, sand and polish it to a mirror finish, then tape off 1/2 of it and bead blast it, then unmask the polished portion, the mirror finish will still be shiny when the blasted portion is coated in rust.

But, I really like the beauty of color case hardening. I would never replace any with polished parts.

 

[minconrevo]

A wise old metallurgist once explained than any ore refined into some metal product will try, over time, to revert back to the original ore status, typically through rust or other oxidation. Our job, as caretaker of metal objects, is to defend the metal from oxidation.

I also am a fan of color case hardening and appreciate its values. If it can't rub/scratch, it will stay intact, and to my eye, pleasing.

 

[413Maxwedge]

Thanks everyone for the tips and information. I ordered some Renaissance Wax for the parts.

Just for reference; I purchased a polished MIM J-frame trigger last November and after 12 months of pocket-carry it shows no tarnish or corrosion. I've also bought and installed some stainless hammers and triggers, which have obviously held their good looks.
So when I saw a seller with a bunch of "polished steel" hammers and triggers on ebay I bought some. I was about to install them and I thought "what KIND of steel are these? Will they rust?" I contacted the seller and he said they are Case Hardened and he polishes them.

That's when I started this thread. I think I'm going to wax and use the Hammer, which won't get handled too much. But I'll probably polish a stainless trigger, since it will be touched often. This will be a winter coat carry gun.

BTW these polished C.H. parts are just polished on the sides and "outside-the-gun" portions -- all the contact/engagement surfaces inside the gun still have the C.H. finish on them.

PS - One of the triggers is clearly a .265 serrated that had the serrations polished off. I can still see the remnants of them and that really bothers me (they didn't show in the add pictures). I was going to throw it out, but I think I'll put it out on the deck and watch what the elements do to it. It'll give me an idea how susceptable to rust it is.
The other trigger (.400 smooth) looks like it left the factory that way, so I'll wax and keep it. The bobbed hammer is a work of art, so that is absolutely getting waxed and installed.

 

[413Maxwedge]

Rust-ability update. I put the ugly polished trigger outside for a week. It was rained on twice, but the winter air dried it and it showed no rust.
Then I put a little table salt in a cup of water to simulate sweat, and dropped the shiny trigger in.
In two days the water was orange and the trigger showed corrosion. I expected it, but wanted to see it.

The first picture below is the experiment part.
The second pic is the nice bobbed hammer and .400 trigger. I will probably resell them.

 

[steelslaver]

if you put the trigger in the salt water then let it dry and get a coat of light rust on it over 3 or 4 days, then lightly wiped it off (don't scrub) with fine steel wool and repeated all this over and over for about a month until the trigger is completely brown after you wipe it off, then boiled it in water for 30 min or so you would have a nice blue trigger

 

[Hondo44]

A friend has a Ruger super Blackhawk with a lot of blue wear. I polished the entire gun for him, first with crocus cloth ending with 2000 grit then metal polish till it shined like polished stainless steel. I did not use a buffing wheel!
He was going to have it blued.

But after 5 years it looks the same even though he shoots it regularly with only normal cleaning and no wax. He’s not ever going to blue it now.

Polished metal has no surface imperfections like raw steel and therefore provides no ability for rust or corrosion to take hold.

Of course soaking it in salt water would rust it but that would rust a blued or color case hardened part the same!

 

[rct269]

Speaking of surface imperfections, it seems the Satin Blue guns (early post-war finish) are LOADED with them---never mind you can't see them on the gun. It follows you can't see what's in them either!!

Enter PRE-LIM, a surface cleaner brought to you by the same folks who bring you Renaissance Wax. Wipe down a Satin Blue finished gun, and then wonder where all the red rust stains on your rag came from. Actually, there's no need to wonder--they came from within those pesky surface imperfections.

Now the gun ends up looking the same as when you started, but it isn't!! It's really clean this time around!

Ralph Tremaine

 

[413Maxwedge]

Thanks to everyone who commented and followed along. Several of you have suggested various bluing and oxidizing methods; To be clear, I bought these polished steel parts specifically for their chrome-like appearance. I am replacing perfectly good case-hardened or blue/black parts because I prefer the two-tone look.

I much prefer the chrome bumpers from the early '70s to the "Endura" plastic bumpers of the late '70s. I respect the Case-Hardened revolver parts and wouldn't change them on my "classic" all original guns from around 1980 (66-1, 63-1) but on a well worn gun, or a modern gun, I like to customize.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

I have removed the serrations on many S&W triggers....They won't rust.....Needs no more than the gun that it is in.