Hello To Everyone,

I am new to this website so I am not sure if this is the place for my question, but here goes anyway. I would like to know if anyone here is able to do case hardening? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your help.

What are you looking to get hardened? A receiver?

If you are looking to have something Color Case Hardened, Doug Turnbull Restorations is about the best.

YMMV

I have a 1873 trapdoor built by Navy Arms, and I am thinking of having the lockplate and buttplate color case hardened.

Urban,
Thank you for the information.

+1 on Turnbull's. Their work is superb.

Welcome to the 'fire!

Ed

Ed,

Thank you for the information.

might look into Ron's gunshop also...

another recommendation for Turnbull....here's a sample of some work he did for me:

Thank you to everyone for all of your help. I have gotten a very reasonable price quote from Turnbull, I am also going to contact Ron's because according to their website they do a couple of different types of Color Case Hardening.

Spoke to Ron's and I was surprised when they did not recommend that I have the parts Case hardened do to the possibility of warping the parts. I had not thought of that so I was impressed that they think of what would be best for my project rather than just selling their services. I will do some more investigating. Thank you for all of your help.

Warping is always a problem, thin sections cooling faster than thick sections when they take the plunge, and less than perfectly equal cooling across the part. Parts are fixtured to prevent warping as necessary and Turnbull is supposed to be very good at that. I'd be inclined to tell Turnbull my concerns to see what they have to say.

I've had Doug do several small pieces for me,adds a little something to the package...

I tried my hand a while back at color case hardening, using the kiln in the pottery studio here at the school. While I could accurately control the temperatures, and used an air-tight vessel (cobbled together out of a short section of 4" cast iron pipe) and the proper charcoals, results were mixed. Small solid parts generally came out nicely mottled but some didn't and I need to figure out why before doing another batch, larger thin parts (such as a rifle lever and a couple of homemade dial indicator arms) did indeed warp a tad. I was able to straighten one out enough to use it. If I try it again I will need to figure out a way to fixture stuff to prevent warpage. I'm told that parts with sharp inside corners run the risk of cracking, but am taking that on faith and do put small fillets there if I think I may ever CC harden them)

It's not rocket science, but definitely an art and oh-my-god what a commotion when all that stuff goes into the quench!

Visit vintageshotgun.com Tony describes his color hardening adventures and discoveries. Oscar Gaddy (RIP) had some articles in Double Gun Journal and some great threads at doublegunshop.com

Looks like big fun, be careful.

Jim

Yes, I've read Tony and Oscar's stuff. They probably did as much as anybody to inspire my feeble efforts. That and Turnbull's usurious shop rates. Frankly, it's quite an ordeal, and since I'm at the mercy of the pottery studio's haphazard kiln schedule, (not to mention the PC attitude of the Demi Moore types I share kiln space with) not something that I plan on pursuing to any great extent.

For functionality, case hardening small parts by using Kasenit is a satisfactory, albeit colorless, process.