Have seen several of Reimar Johansens rifles and Holland & Hollands rifles with "French grey" - finish. Looks very nice on the action. What is it actually ??

It depends on who applies it. It's a rather generic term for a metal treatment that leaves the metal surface silver or gray.

Some companies are using a nitriding process which is surface hardening process. I engraved a Hagn for a customer who had it sent to Hartmann and Weiss for French Gray. It covered over my gold animals and gold borders. So they must be using a plating process of some type. Some engravers are simply stripping the rust blue off of the metal and winding up with a matte gray(bad idea). My process involves applying a phosphate material in coats(like rust blue). It usually takes about five coats to get the color I want.

The short answer is, ask what the proceedure is before giving the go ahead.

Roger,

Since I saw this once on a LoneStar rolling block (I think they're out of texas) on their website I thought it was incredible, and especially on something with sideplates to show it off.

Does your process require the metal first be blued, or be in the white? How rust resistant is it?

And now the dangerous one, how about cost? (on something like a Ruger No. 1 or 3)

Red

Red:

I need the metal to be in the white for my process.

I have a Ruger #1 action that I grayed 20 years ago that doesn't have any rust on it.

Cost for a Ruger single shot action is $120.00