Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Making Dad's Colt Right

Shown is my late father’s Colt .22 Peacemaker. My father passed in 2001. I want to “make it right” to honor his memory. I have two issues with it that I want to “make right.”

There was a time when a young engraver by the name of Paul A. Harris lived across the street from my parents. My dad and Mr. Harris struck up a friendship, and Mr. Harris offered to engrave my father’s Colt. I don’t know how long Mr. Harris had been engraving when he engraved my father’s gun, or how long he continued to engrave. From what little I know about engraving, the work is very fine.

Please excuse my ill composed photos. I was trying to capture certain features or colors and I believe I was successful in that regard.
MY PHOTOS ARE IN AN IDENTICALLY TITLED THREAD IN THE IMAGE GALLERY. I DON'T POST PHOTOS OFTEN ENOUGH TO BE GOOD AT IT. I WILL DO WHAT I CAN TO GET THE PHOTOS ON THIS FORUM. THANKS FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION.
THANKS TO DAVE284, THE PICTURES ARE A FEW POSTS BELOW (6 PICTURES SHOWING FRAME COLOR AND GRIPS.)

My first issue is the “plum” or purplish color of the frame. The frame was originally case hardened, but it had to be sent to Colt to have the case hardening “removed” so the gun could be engraved. I don’t know what “removed” means, or how it was done, but that is the story as told to me by my father. After engraving, the gun was re-blued and the aluminum grip frame was redone, I assume re-anodized. I do not know who did the refinishing, but as one can see, the color of the frame is much different from the barrel and cylinder. I assume the difference is due to different steels, or perhaps the “history” of how the steel in the frame was treated in all the processes involved to get to the gun to the current condition. Regardless of the reason, I find the color of the frame distracting and unattractive. I believe it detracts significantly from a beautifully engraved gun.

My current plan for the frame is to strip the gun down to frame and barrel and send it to Turnbull Restorations. They will remove the barrel, color case harden the frame, loading gate, and hammer, then reinstall the barrel. I will then reassemble the gun. It won’t be cheap, but Turnbull does beautiful color case hardening.

The second issue is the grips. Years ago, when my father was still living, I bought and fitted the stag grips. They are from Eagle Grips. I was never happy with them, but I was in no position to return them. I managed to fit them well where they were too large, but of course I could do nothing where they were too small. I think the right grip is pretty, but the coloring on the left grip panel is not. In addition, there is a lot of “pith” on both panels, especially on the backstrap. To me, these grips also detract from a potentially beautiful gun. My choices here are the original Colt black grips (which I still have and which look surprisingly good with color case hardening), prettier stag grips (probably now quite expensive), some form of faux ivory (real ivory is just too expensive), some species of attractive wood, or some other exotic material. All will look good on this revolver. My current thinking is the original black grips or a good faux ivory.

I am interested in opinions from those with experience. I am especially interested in comments on my plan to send to Turnbull. The grips are not permanent, but anything done to the frame is not so easy to correct.

Thanks in advance for any replies,
Gun Doc

Will be very nice when you are done...better than new...

Are you going to send the gripframe and cylinder to be reblued to match the barrel?

Grips...I think any of your options will work. I lean toward the ivory especially if you can find a set with a medallion...

Bob

Thanks for the reply. The cylinders, actually two, .22 rim fire and .22 rim fire magnum, match the barrel pretty well now. The gripframe is aluminum. I think it is anodized, and it is a pretty good match to the cylinders and barrel. The issue is the "purple" frame, which will (hopefully!) be color cased.

Gonna be AWESOME! I didn't know your dad but I'd bet he would be plum tickled.


What dad wouldn't.

Hope you don't mind.

I agree with Bob on the grips. Ivory with medallions would be superb.

Honestly, I like the stag grips you have on it...

Thank you dave284 for putting the pictures up! Very much appreciated!

To the other posters, I thank each of you for the comments so far.

The grips are easy, if not inexpensive, in that they are replaceable. If both sides looked like the right side, I'd like them a lot more. Even so, both sides have a lot of porous "pith" that doesn't seem very durable. Along the backstrap is especially bad, and especially the left grip.

I wasn't very clear, but my real concern is if Turnbull can color case harden that "plum" colored frame that has already been through so much "processing." The frame has already had the original case hardening removed and then re-blued (process unknown) that resulted in the "purple" color. It reminds me of some old Ruger revolvers that have the same coloring. I have since done some more research and found an interesting discussion here:
http://www.rugerforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=127768
It seems some like the color, and a few collectors view it as a "variation", but most consider it a defect. I asked Hamilton Bowen about it a few years ago, and his observation was no one he knew considered it a desirable condition.

Of course the real answer about what they can do will come from Turnbull. I was just wondering if anyone here had experience having a "plum" colored frame case hardened.

Thanks again to all,
Gun Doc

yeah......


and don't put medallions on 'er. nothing like a 'commemorative coin' to ruin a good set of grips....

If you aren't going with another set of stag like already on it I'd just do some really pretty wood.

Wow! That's nice.

You can't "remove" case hardening. What you can do is anneal the frame to soften it back to its original basic alloy. After it was annealed and then engraved (which looks good IMO) it should've been re-case hardened to apply that hard skin which was there originally for a reason- it provides hardness to minimize wear from the moving parts and provides a modicum of strength to the steel. The fact that it wasn't re-case hardened after engraving shows a bit of irresponsibility on the part of whoever engineered that project, IMO. Case hardening was/is a common way to utilize cheap grades of low carbon steel that didn't have enough carbon in it (and/or other alloying elements) to allow the whole thing to respond to through-hardening via heat treating- a way to keep costs down. The colors we like on case hardened steel are merely a side effect of the process. In fact most industrial carburizing (another word for case hardening) doesn't employ the archaic methods anymore that produces those colors. Then again, a lot of gunmakers purposely use cheap steel and CCH it because a lot of guys demand it on their guns.

That said, I would be interested to know how Turnbull will remove the current "plum" bluing, and then polish the surfaces to prep it for re-case hardening with out softening/blurring the engraving. Pray they don't have to re-cut the engraving after that prep work, which is the traditional protocol in these situations. Perhaps they have perfected an alternative process, I don't know.

All that said, I would be tempted to leave that revolver frame the way it is, unless Dad hated the look of it too. A new nicely fitted pair of grips would go a long way toward spiffing up that gun just in themselves.

Me too.

I would agree, if they fit better.

I fit them very nicely where they were too large (and painstakingly too, I might add, so as to not scratch the anodized aluminum grip frame.) But the gaps were what they were.
The amount of pith bothers me, and the fact that they don't match. The left panel looks "dirty" to my eye. The right panel is less pithy and lighter in color. It also fits a little better. I could live with two like it.

gnoahhh,

Thank you for that very informative reply about the frame. My takeaways:
As far as wear, the gun has been shot little to none since being engraved. It is a .22 rim fire, so I doubt frame strength is an issue. However, wear due to the moving parts could still be an issue.
I don’t know who, how, or why the decision was made not to re-case harden. But I wish it had been a different decision.
Perhaps the frame blued to the “plum” color because it was an alloy that was meant to be case hardened? That fits with your description.
Based on what you describe, the usual procedure is to polish in the white, engrave, and then case harden?
I will be sure Turnbull sees pictures of the gun before I send it to them. If they tell me the process involves re-cutting the engraving, I will definitely reconsider attempting to re-case harden. That process would probably be more expensive than I am willing to consider, not to mention the re-engraving might not be done as well as the original. It almost certainly wouldn’t be the same engraver. I don’t know if Paul Harris is still engraving.

Thanks again,
Gun Doc

Don't think you'd be gaining anything.

original colt cch 1900



turnbull




new colt




CCH seems to be a lost art.

CCH was pretty much a lost art but now there are "artisanal" CCH'ers out there who are bringing it back. The science of it is easy, but it is also an art form and as such takes a certain mindset to do it right. Plus, equipment required isn't found in everyone's shop- heat treat furnaces, airtight crucibles, and quench tanks being the biggies.

watch4bear,

I missed something. I don't get the point of your post.
If it works, I'd trade an off color "plum" colored frame for a nicely color cased frame.

There's nothing to miss. The pictures are self explanatory. Have a ball.

the


They are trying; now if they could replicate, every time, they'd have something.

Whoa!

Outstanding piece.

A treasure to own

Do nothing.

Good job Doc, if your Dad gripped that revolver with the grips that are on it, they'd still be on it when I was about dead and handed it down to the next generation.

Wow
I would leave it just as is...your dad was happy with it...and its done up like Matt Dillons