Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Color Case Hardening ?

I recntly read through an old thread (2010) discussing in part, the color case hardening of 99 receivers. Opinions therein differed about the safety of 99 receivers after being subjected to the heating and quenching required in the process. Also some question about the possibility of warping because of the thin sidewalls of the 99 receiver. I know it has been done ... saw the photos. Just wondering if there is anything more definitive on this matter some 4 years after that discussion.

Don't think ther's anything new. I personally don't think there's any safety issue, but a lot of professionals won't touch 99 receivers due to the chance of warping.

I wanted a 99 done and called Turnbull. They won't touch one. In this day and age, I would go with their opinion as about as good as it gets.

pretty sure I saw a 99 on G.I. that was done and advertised as being done by Turnbull

I wonder if he ended up buying one that warped and now thinks better of it??

To me it's always looked like risky business. The ones that survived look really cool. Sure would like to know how many dead soldiers there are though...

As I have heard it, Turnbull used to do it and no longer will. I guess I don't get why its any riskier than sideplates on a shotgun or most anything that gets case colored regularly.

As a Toolmaker MySelf,, And Told By Heattreaters and Such it's The Metal Used in a 99 Action,
THere are Some Successs however, and a ton of failures.

Seems odd to me to believe that Savage used a metal that was much different than what everyone else of the age was using... they were color casing every shotgun frame of teh era, Fox, Parker, LC Smith, Lefever, Ithaca, etc. Savage 99 receivers are not particularly thin, especially when compare to things like lock plates and trigger plates on a shotgun.

Marlin case colored about 100 of the 1895's receivers but Savage did not do any of the 1899's if I remember correctly.

Did Savage not case harden because of the effect on the metal used or because the metal used did not need it? That high gloss blue finish looks pretty good to me.

yeah, I love the mirror blue finish, I just struggle to under shy there is so much issue (or at least rumored trouble) with case coloring a 99.

Brew
It's Not because they are thin, It has to to with Fillets,Radius's etc and type of Metal used, They are prone to Cracking,,, Certain metal's will be prone to cracking on surface hardening. And basically that is what Case coloring sort of does.

There are ways of getting around it, watching temperature and type of methods used,, a lot of Guys like to Flame, and don't know jack about Bone and Charcoal or Cyanide process or even oil quenching.The Problem is they get Like Glass Hard, and don't know how to Draw down. and the know how is diminishing.

I Stell Case Harden Things In the shop on a Pinch, Core Pins, Locks, Slides Etc, Using Cyanide, and Tha hardness is like Glass and .008 Deep at 70 R/C Which id fine for a Mold and Solid Piece of Steel.

Case hardening works best on carbon steel alloys. If other elements are present in the alloy, it can get problematical. Not knowing what kind of steel Savage used at any given period, I wouldn't hazard any more than that.