Restoring, Engraving and Color Case Hardening a pin fire revolver

santos · Jan 18, 2021

Hi every body

Here’s a project I’ve been working on during the whole December , while staying at home due to the pandemic.

I had to restore a pair of guns for my collection : a small garden carbine 9mm smooth bore from 1900

And a pin fire revolver , 12mm calibre, a Triple Action Lepage et Chauvot that was sold in Paris circa 1860.

There was a lot of metal surface preparation on these guns : They were rusty, with some pits and a few pieces like the trigger, two springs and the ejection rod were missing on the revolver.

By chance , a friend of mine has the same revolver and loaned it , so I could measure and make with saw and files the pieces missing.

Once they were in the white I did some engraving on them: some wine grapes for the revolver on the barrel and some flowers and scrolls on the action of the garden carbine.

This carbine is intended to be offered to my grand daughter : I engraved her monogram on the trigger guard with a small S gold inlayed.

santos · Jan 18, 2021

COLOR CASE HARDENING:

Once finished I took all the pieces apart for blueing the barrels and cylinder and color case harden the frame, hammer, trigger of the revolver and the action, hammer and the butt plate of the carbine.

Hardening was not as easy as I would expect after watching some videos on YT and reading some recipes . You need a big oven , able to reach temperatures up to 900° C and maintain this high temperature during at least one hour . You also need a water bin , big enough to quench the hot red crucible containing the pieces to case harden…

However Color Case hardening is an interesting process, and then you got a really hard coating and of course you got these interesting colours that give a nice patina to these old guns .You just need to wear some protections for steam and red charcoal protection … And of course you have to make your bone charcoal outdoor and pry for a bit of wind carrying the smells far from your neighbourhoods .

Here’s a video that shows some of the steps of this CCH made at home: