BornFighting88 said:
They might do that thing the Italians do, since they are not allowed to use organic bone in their color case hardening. I think they use charcoal or something. Am I right in that?? Still fake.
No, not fake --
if they use charcoal to actually case harden. It doesn't have to be
bone charcoal. But I doubt the Italians are doing any kind of case hardening, so their "color case" finishes are probably fake -- just as I'm sure this Kahr finish is fake.
However ...
The industry (or maybe we gun owners) have created a lot of confusion with the use of the term "color case hardening." Case hardening is a thermal process that used to be used to harden the outer surface of soft pieces of steel. The nature of the process involved immersing the part(s) in a bed of hot charcoal. The charcoal was in lumps, so the surface of the part got hotter where there was direct contact, and not as hot where there wasn't direct contact. This produced a mottled finish, which was characteristic of case hardened parts.
In other words, true case hardening was not a finish, it was a hardening process. The resulting mottled color was a side effect, not an intended result.
Fast forward to the late 20th and now the 21st century, and pretty much all steel firearms frames are fully heat treated throughout, so they don't need to have the outer surfaces case hardened. In fact, trying to do so would be deleterious to the heat treatment. So manufacturers who want to replicate the mottled finish of charcoal (and bone, which was just a material that was burned to create charcoal) case hardening now use a chemical process to replicate the appearance of real case hardening.
If they're being honest, they call it "color case finish" and don't claim that it's "case hardened." The Kahr web page kind of skirts honesty on this point. The headline says "Case Hardened 1911." But, if you read the fine print, it's then put in quotes:
"Case Hardened 1911", .45 Cal., 5" barrel, Wood Grips US Logo, Case "Hardened" finish with clear protective coat, ...
Putting it in quotes is advertising trickery to let us know that it's not really case hardened.