Gun refinishing- blue to case-hardened?

[SeraphG]

I've seen several case-hardened guns recently and they are really gorgeous. Is this a finish or a process? Can you make a blue receiver (leveraction) look like this after the fact?

And also, is there a way to make blued/case hardened barrels/receivers more weather resistant? I'm thinking something like a clearcoat on a car paint job lol.

Thanks in advance!

[HighDesertWolf]

case hardening isnt something most can do at home it isnt even something most gunsmiths can even offer. your best bet is to by something that is already case hardened or see if the manufacturer of the gun can do it for you.

In order to case harden a gun this what will have to happen, and because of the process i doubt you will see many barrels with a case hardened finish. also case hardening wasnt originally a finish to make a gun look pretty it was actually a process used to harden the steel and relieve internal stress in the steel. If you were to case harden an already blued reciever you would have to strip the blueing off down to the bare metal then heat the metal to around 1000 degrees than quench the steel in oil which is something that is very dangerous because the oil does catch fire while the steel is cooling. then if the process wasnt done just exactly right you may wind up with a weakened reciever and the gun may not be safe to shoot.

[falcon]

The very best case hardening is done with bone charcoal.

[SeraphG]

Thanks for the information! I found a Gunsmithing kit that will do the color case hardening but upon reading about the process and all of the things involved, its probably more trouble than its worth since its merely for vanity sake.