I see this mentioned every now and again on this forum, re carburizing Mausers. But, even after using the 'search' feature I found no reference to price. So, I called Blanchard Metals Processing today, $100 for the first piece, $25 for each additional piece. If you were to send one action and one bolt the cost would be $125, you would be responsible for the shipping costs both ways. Turn around in 7-10 days. just a bit of info for those wondering..

Yes; right;. I do not send them bolts; I never had one that was soft. Receivers, yes.
Also note that it is useless to do any polishing on parts because they come back gray and rough. I learned the the hard way.
I never had any warpage though.

Basic question. When receivers are engraved as part of a custom job, are they annealed first, then engraved, then re-carburized, then polished and blued?

quote:

Originally posted by A7Dave:
Basic question. When receivers are engraved as part of a custom job, are they annealed first, then engraved, then re-carburized, then polished and blued?

That is something I’ve wondered about as well.

Disclaimer first; I am not an engraver, so a 'real' engraver should feel free to correct any of this.. It will be easier to engrave if the part is annealed first, the surface might be so hard you have to anneal. To engrave, a smooth surface is needed to be able to control the tool. So, you have answered your own question, anneal, polish (usually by hand with a sanding block to maintain 'flatness', at times with stones
, no ripples), engrave, re-carburize, re-polish as needed, blue..
I would not send a bolt to be re-carburized, but I have seen a couple of 'soft' ones over the past 25yrs. If it wasn't such a PIA, I'd post a pic of a Mauser '98 bolt with the lugs badly deformed.

Ok, on the engraving; the metal from Blanchards is not very hard, and can be easily engraved. It is case hardened to about RC35-40. And, the idea of having it annealed, then engraved, then hardened again by their method, will result in a rough mess and your engraving will be etched. For that you need a furnace with some sort of inert gas that leaves the metal smooth. Not sure if anyone does that.
If you want Blanchards to anneal something, it is the same cost as hardening; they do not anneal unless you ask for it and you will pay for that. We discussed that.
Modern "case hardening" like Turnbull, or Italian, is not too hard nor too deep to cut with carbide tooling. And modern chrome moly steel is not hard at all anyway.
Not an engraver either.