There are other finishes to make a firearm corrosion resistant. Get it Parkerized with manganese phosphate, coat it with enamel like Para does, or you can even gold plate it like a Deagle (ick).
Here are example of Blue/Case/Nickel, just for your edification.
Blue:
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Color Case:
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Nickel:
And I have to say, after handling a model 40... I'd prefer it, maybe, even with the grip safety and the old grip, to the alloy 642, and lock-cursed 640.
I do like the look of case hardening, But not on that pistol with a blued barrel.
There was a fad for home "case hardening" in the 70s, probably stemming from the muzzle-loader kit craze. The DIYer played a torch over the metal surface until he got a sort of mottled light blue effect. I wouldn't care to shoot anything so treated.
ReplyDeleteA similar dodge was used on cheap maple to produce a striped effect. Bubba saturated a rope in tar, wrapped it around the nearly finished stock and lit it off.
I'm a blued guy... Got spoiled by the finish on Pythons...
ReplyDeleteWikipedia has a good entry on case hardening, but sums it up thus:
ReplyDeleteFirearms were a common item case hardened in the past, as they required precision machining best done on low carbon alloys, yet needed the hardness and wear resistance of a higher carbon alloy.
So what you had was gun steel that was easy to grind/machine, then given a finish that hardened the outer surface, much like the crust of a loaf of French bread. It's one reason why you should never do amateur gunsmithing on old guns: once you penetrate the hardened outer surface, the inner steel is soft and wears quickly.