I have a old Spanish 12 gauge that has seen better days. It's still locks up tight though. I'd like to reshape the frame a bit and restock it. Where do I send it for annealing and then rehardening? And who might touch up the engraving while I'm at it? Thanks

Turnbull; but it will cost more than the entire shotgun is worth. CCH. And engraving.

On a low dollar gun, this is a DIY project.

Disassemble completely. Pack in some kind of metal container with a bunch of ash, dry sand, or even vermiculite. Put in fire or furnace til whole thing red hot. Let fire go out and leave in container overnight. It will be dead soft in morning.

Then have at it with files and gravers. The graver part is not DIY, so if you don't have a friend who will engrave it for you, skip that part.

When you are happy, pack again in metal container with some fine charcoal, preferably including some bone charcoal and/or burned shoe leather. Get it red hot and keep it red hot for at least an hour. Then take lid off metal box and quickly throw the whole thing in a big bucket or drum of water. Don't try to "pour" the contents, if the red hot receiver gets any air it will turn grey.

Now you have your receiver case hardened. Put in kitchen oven at 400 for an hour. Now it's tempered.

Put it back together andlube what needs lube. You may need to stone the barrels at the critical contact areas to get them to lock up tight again. But probably not.

Fire away.

Ok, Flamers get ready.

For many years I’ve been using the cleaning cycle on our kitchen oven to anneal parts, mostly Mauser Rifle boot shrouds, to ready them for machining. I’d try it on an old Spanish double frame.

To get it dead soft, particularly if it was previously cased, you need to get it above 1350F.

It will soften somewhat if you get it up to about 800 or 900, but not dead soft. And it has to cool slowly. That is probably why the oven trick works "well enough" for machining.

For engraving, the softer the better.

Classic Guns Ltd. Crete, Il no website.