case hardening on buffalo classic

[mike4]

was just wondering what is used to case harden the recievers on the buffalo classic rifles thank you

[quickdtoo]

Dunno what they do exactly, but they're not real case color hardened, they're heat treated investment cast alloy which is much stronger than case hardened cast iron, they use a fake case coloring treatment that's isn't nearly as nice looking as the real thing, if you've seen real case color hardened firearms, you'd know the difference. 

Tim

[mike4]

thanks just always wondered how they colored them

[mauser98us]

cyanide I beleive

[MrJames680]

I have actually done this but not for any firearm. We did it by heating up the metal to a specific color and then quenching it in really dirty motor oil. The theory is that there is enough carbon in the oil so that the metal 'soaks' it up and alters the alloy. The extra carbon in the steel makes it harder. Some color but not much.

For color I believe they use ferrocyanide. Otherwise a less toxic chemical is used called Red Cherry. (Kasenit / Casenite? ). In this method, you will heat it up and then quench in this chemical repeatedly.

The current method is to place the steel work in a carbon rich pack, called a carburizing pack and place it in a furnace. Time and temp determine the hardness of the steel and how deep the hardness goes (not to far)

[mechanic]

The current method is to place the steel work in a carbon rich pack, called a carburizing pack and place it in a furnace. Time and temp determine the hardness of the steel and how deep the hardness goes (not to far)

IMHO this is how they do it, and its done in the heat treating process.

I believe these receivers are cast steel, vs. cast iron.  Cast steel can be tempered and heat treated.  I have one cast anvil that is about 60 rockwell in hardness, which is about as good as forged steel, though a little more brittle.

[NFG]

I think they gave up using cyanide...it was making people really dead and with todays laws, getting rid of the cyanide salts is a real PITA.

Plus, it is a really complicated process to do without messing up.

Brownells sells a good product called Kasenit that works great for hardening small items like pins, screws, punches, chisels...I've used it for many years to do screw driver blades and chisel tips...takes a bit of experimenting to get it right...hard on the outside and softer in the inside so it won't shatter like glass.

Lots of good information on the net if you want to delve deeper.

[Ten Ring]

There's a difference between case hardening and case coloring.
 Jim

[OldBob]

  If you do a Gogle search for "Marlin color case hardening" you will find a bunch of info on it ...and you'll get to see some beautiful examples of it on Marlin receivers. Somewhere there is a write up by a fellow who has done a very in depth study on it and he goes into great detail on how it is done.... his results are amazing, much like Turnbull's work with Winchesters.

[MrJames680]

There's a difference between case hardening and case coloring.

Except for the color there is no real difference. The coloring is a side side effect. Any steel that is case hardened will have a new 'case colored' effect.