How to do Color Case Hardening

[TomG]

(07-22-2012, 09:29 AM)Harry Eales Wrote: Hello TomG,

I have been following the Marlin thread since it started, and it really excellent. The two articles by the late Dr. Oscar Gaddy whilst well written and published elsewhere showed he fairly experimented well, but didn't really hit the nail on the head. His temperatures appeared to me to be too high. The Marlin thread shows good colours at far lower temperatures. That's the one I am going to follow.

This may be my first post on this forum but I'm in my 69th year and have been working metal for more than 55 years mostly connected with work on firearms. It's good to see another metalworking forum, and I'm glad to have joined up.

Harry

Welcome Harry, it's good to have another experienced member aboard.

I'm getting close to color case hardening the receiver on my Steven's which is why I've been researching the process. The Marlin thread is very thorough and should greatly shorten the learning curve when the time comes to try it myself.

I've also derived that lower temperatures are key to vivid colors, along with some sort of cage to hold the charcoal in contact with the parts as long as possible.

Tom