Steel finishing?

[NAA_Silent]

When I received my '51 Navy confederate, I tore it completely apart. I found several screws that were loose, and a couple nipples were only finger tight. I also found interference between the hammer and the hammer channel. A few minutes with a file, sand paper and finally a stone fixed the Navy. Since it's brass, I didn't have to worry about the finish other than just polishing it. I've put a couple hundred rounds through it without issue.

Yesterday my '60 Army came in, and I did the same thing, and found several loose screws and nipples as well. I also find that the hammer is clipping the left side of the hammer channel slightly. I've stoned the hammer, and used a stone on the left of the channel, but it looks like I may need to get a tad more aggressive. I still need to work on the trigger-hammer interface since it's sticking a bit at 1/2 cock as well. Once the action is smooth, I'll hit the range with the Army.

My question is, how can I recreate the finish on the steel frame of the '60 Army? Or would it be better to just be overly careful of the existing finish when doing the smithing that's required?

 

[mykeal]

What's the difference between just plain being careful and being overly careful?

Take care not to damage the finish; it will be difficult to match perfectly. I don't know if that means overly careful or not.

 

[NAA_Silent]

I hate computers, and obviously I'm not very good at em either.

The difference would be that the "Overly careful" sounded better than "careful" at the time. :v

 

[mykeal]

Apologies for sounding nit picky. There are two areas where you simply can't be too careful: handling firearms and antique china belonging to my wife. Don't ask me how I know about the latter one. :idunno:

 

[rawhide]

well put! I myself wen ever doing any smith work like sanding or filing I put a peace of tape on the part I dont wont damged work great.

 

[44-henry]

The finish on your Army is color case hardening and most of the Italian companies use a cyanide process to acheive the colors. The original Colt process used bone and charcoal which in my opinion looks a lot better than the cyanide, but is more labor intensive for factories to do today. The best approach would be to send the frame to a specialist and have it re-casehardened after the alterations, this could cost anywhere from $75 to $200+ depending on the type of process used and who does the work. A cheaper approach would be to simply use a bottle of cold blue to touch up the area by using various application techniques (heat, water puddles, and simply painting it on the surface) you can get pretty realistic effects.

 

[NAA_Silent]

The best approach would be to send the frame to a specialist and have it re-casehardened after the alterations, this could cost anywhere from $75 to $200+ depending on the type of process used and who does the work.

Wow. That's more than the entire pistol is worth I'd wager. I paid $200 for it new. I did get the alterations that were needed done to the '60, and the finish doesn't look bad at all, 90% of the work is hidden in the hammer channel, and internally. The rest was breaking sharp edges, I don't like getting sliced open at the range while shooting.

If it looks like it's rusting at all, I'll break out a bottle of chemical bluing that I have here and see if I can blotch some on to both protect and semi match the original finish.

A small price to pay to have a clean, smooth, and functioning action. The hammer was clipping the left side of the hammer channel badly, the 1/2 cock was sticking real bad, and the seer-hammer interface was very gritty. I was 1/2 tempted to return it for an exchange, but I decided to work with it and I think I've won the battle. I'm going to take the '60 Army to the range tomorrow along with the '51 Navy and see how it shoots.