Color case hardening and inlays

[Crusader68]

I'm beginning on my first firearm project, it's a colt 1908 vest pocket pistol in .25 acp, and I have a couple questions about the sequence of work. I plan on having the frame and slide color case hardened(may end up trying my hand at doing it myself) as well as doing some inlay work on the slide. I assume the normal route would be to cut all the engraving and undercuts for the inlays, then case harden and finish the inlays afterwards, is that how most people do it? One could cut the engraving after hardening, as the hardening only goes to a minute depth, but I'd be concerned with messing up the finish and having to repeat the process.

 

[SamW]

All the engraving is normally done prior to case hardening. Be sure to keep your inlay work clean as you go so no oils or contamination gets under the inlays. Temperatures are not normally hot enough to cause problems. But for very narrow lines, underlying contamination can sometimes cause splattering of the inlay material at higher temperatures. If you can save any detail work on inlays till after case coloring, especially fine detail, it may save some "re-do".

Hopefully others will chime in with their experience/advice.

 

[Thierry Duguet]

All the engraving is normally done prior to case hardening. Be sure to keep your inlay work clean as you go so no oils or contamination gets under the inlays. Temperatures are not normally hot enough to cause problems. But for very narrow lines, underlying contamination can sometimes cause splattering of the inlay material at higher temperatures. If you can save any detail work on inlays till after case coloring, especially fine detail, it may save some "re-do".

Hopefully others will chime in with their experience/advice.

You describe the process perfectly

 

[Beathard]

I do the inlay the color case harden. I do the shading of the inlay after color case hardening.

 

[zzcutter]

I also do as described above.

 

[Beathard]

Oh BTW, really make sure you know what you are doing if you try your own CCH. You need to take steps to make sure the heat does not distort anything.

 

[LVVP]

SamW,

thank you for your input

 

[SamW]

You are most welcome Vlad. It is mostly from painful experience.