quote:

As for the desirablility of case colors. When I was a kid, I didn't understand case colors. I thought they were ugly. As I got older, and read all about shotguns I couldn't afford to buy, my tastes changed. Way back in the long ago day, that case color showed you that metal was hard on the outside, soft on the inside, and it was the mark of a fine gun. Today, it still is a mark of quality, but few new guns are charcoal bone color case hardened. They aren't even cyanide case hardened. They have figured out a way to color chome moly steel, which doesn't need the case hardening, so it looks color case hardened. And the people who are old enough to afford those guns just love it.

But color case wasn't the only prestigious finish. Way back in the day, an alternative was the coin finish. Now, to really be a true coin finish, it was just plain polished case hardened steel. They color case hardened those mild steel parts, then polished off the color to make a "coin finish". It was still hardened, and still somewhat resistant to rusting, but that's how they did it. Today they usually don't case harden the part anyway, so they use a silver nitride process, which actually does harden the surface, then polish it, just like in the old days. It's not a plating. The coin surface is still hardened steel, that's been polished.

For enough money, there are still guns that are truly charcoal color case hardened, and still the old fashioned polished case hardened steel they called a coin finish. There just aren't many, and they cost money. The Spanish guns may still be genuine. The Italian and Japanese guns have long ago taken the short cuts, or so I'm told.

My new CG Summit Limited has a gorgeous "color case hardened" finish that looks like Doug Tournball did it. But I'm told it's phony. I have no idea if it will rub off. The old time case colors were just a few microns thick, and they really did rub off, leaving a silver finish, not the polished coin finish of the ones made that way. As to the new artificial coin finishes, actually they are more genuine. It's still just hardened steel. They used a different way to harden it.

The side by side market is nuts over color case hardening because the traditional best guns of all countries used it. Why the coin finish wasn't so popular I can't say. One reason may be this. It was not a big trick to case harden a surface. The art, the really difficult part, was to make the colors come out right. I wonder if the coin finished guns were just the color case hardened ones that didn't come out of the "case" with the right colors? Another reason is that people tend to think the coin finished guns are "plated", and we all "know" that plated guns are cheap.

I own a Beretta 687 DU with a duller coin finish, and it's stayed gorgeous. My Spanish shotguns have what I think are cyanide color case hardened actions. Cyanide was quicker and cheaper than charcoal bone hardening, but the colors are gaudy, not as muted and soft. My old doubles were all color case hardened using bone charcoal, and all of them have lost most of the colors. You can still see them in protected places and they are gorgeous. Hopefully the new Guerini will hold her colors for a while.

quote:

Originally posted by Mississippian:
I was curious about that myself so I googled this post on Shotgun world by a gentleman in Missouri,

To me, some of the coin finished guns that I have seen, including my Merkel, look like a plating. Maybe Mac, 400NE or one of our other Double Masters will chime in and enlighten us!

....Mac >>>===(x)===> MacD37, ...and DUGABOY1
DRSS Charter member
"If I die today, I've had a life well spent, for I've been to see the Elephant, and smelled the smoke of Africa!"~ME 1982

Hands of Old Elmer Keith