Armi San Marco Heat treating

Does anyone offer heat treating for the internal parts on Italian reproduction revolvers? Many of the internal parts and even screws seem to be very soft and grind themselves down by use. I have seen Pietta and Armi San Marco parts grind themselves down until the revolvers become out of time and not operable. It's too bad that Ruger's Old Army is out of production for those of use that enjoy cap and ball revolvers.

I have a 25 year old Pietta 1860 that I had to make a new trigger for out of O-1 tool steel.
I tried to case the original trigger but it just would not hold and edge so I made a new one from scratch using the old as a pattern.
This one holds it's edge!

I'm not sure what parts you would want to heat treat. Most of the Italian replicas in the last ten years or so are pretty good in that respect.
The hand should not be hardend as it is a wear part. The bolt has to be drawn to a spring temper as the revolver simply won't work at all if it isn't. Both the hammer and trigger are made of mild steel and case hardened. Case hardening is not really heat treating in the way it is generally thought of with high carbon steels. In actuality, other than the springs,the bolt is the only high carbon steel part and as I said it has to be at a spring temper.

You can treat the internals you feel are soft using Kasenit. As was mentioned, some parts such as the hand are "wear parts" so don't treat both sides of moving parts

Well, that's not to say hands are dead soft because they aren't they're just not quite as hard as the ratchet which can also be file.
They can be lengthened by peening in the middle generally but when I am fitting a hand/pawl with a file I can tell it has some degree of hardening to it over the base metal hardness.
Perhaps toughness would be a better description of file resistance.
Stress proof steel sold by Brownell's is a good example as it files and machines readily but makes some of the best firing pins and machine screws imaginable. It too will partially resist a file to demonstrate both a degree of hardness and toughness.

Stressproof is a registered trade mark steel. The common Stressproof steel is 1144 steel in make up, but treated/hardened by being forced through a die, or series of dies. Basically work hardened. It is harder on the surface than at it's core, due to how it is made. Since the core is not hardened to any great degree, possibly none, I have to wonder if it really has much advantage over a heat treated fire pin or screw.

As others have said, case hardening is the usual method rather than getting a high carbon steel and heat treating it.
I don't know if Kasenit (Brownell's sold it)is still available.

I haven't researched Brownell's steel make up Wick but I will.
The mix up is that I keep calling it "Stress Proof" steel but Brownell's calls it " Fatigue proof". It has a high ratio of Manganese to carbon content which makes it both quite hard and tough ( I don't know the exact numbers yet) all the way through.
I have made both firing pins and machine screws from it on my lathe and it is just as tough on the interior as it is on the surface.
Firing pins made of it last very well and do not bend,deform or break tips especially the ones that strike angularly.

Yep Two different steels, Fatigue-free steel, also patented and trade mark registered by the same producer of Stressproof. It is made by drawing at high temp, and is evenly hard from surface to center. It can be water hardened to 60 Rc.

Kasenit is getting hard to find but a product called "Cherry Red" is made to be used to produce similar case hardening.

Kasenit got on some S... lists because it is a cyanide hardening material.

The cyanide is chemically locked up in it and actually poises no real health issues (unless you eat it) but in our modern "Don't Touch the Lead" world....

Anyway, Cherry Red is sold by some of the suppliers like Brownell's and even USA Midway.

They do want a arm and a leg for it price-wise though.
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/119479/cherry-red-surface-hardening-compound-1-lb

A person can also case harden by packing the part in a crucible of hardwood charcoal and heating it up to at least 1300degrees F. for an hour or two and water quenching.
If one goes much above 1400F. they will not get good color but the case will be driven in deeper.
If you get up around 1600 F it's necessary to quench in oil to prevent cracking but the case will be deeper still as the surface takes on carbon from the Charcoal in an oxygen free envelope.

Hmmmm......I own an ASM '51 Navy made in 1967 that appears to me to be of just as high a quality as any Italian repro c&b revolver I've ever owned or handled. At 49 yrs of age she's as tight and accurate as new, and functions flawlessly.