Driftwood Johnson
New member
I agree with denster, you can get very nice case hardening and coloring by what the British call "cyanide mottling." Probably the outstanding American example is the Stevens 44 1/2 with its ripple of colors from the way it was quenched.
Just because Colt used the older and slower pack hardening does not make others else wrong for using a different process.
So my question remains. Does this method infuse extra carbon into the surface of the steel or iron? If extra carbon is not infused into the surface, it is not 'case hardening' in the literal sense of the term. As I'm sure you know, Case Hardening means the outer surface, or 'case' of the metal has been hardened by infusing more carbon into the surface than exists in the alloy to start with. The colors of Case Hardening are just a byproduct of the process, they are not the reason the surface of the metal was hardened.