Please give your opinions as to which metal finish best shows off engraving. Choices are blue, Nickel, French Gray, or CCH. I don't want to do a poll as they always cause more questions. I am ready to put the final finish on a double rifle; of course the barrels will be blued. Here it is now: Engraving by Kari.

I think CCH looks best on a double. The contrast will be maximized because the engraved areas will color darker than the polished raised areas which will have the lighter grey, purple and blue hues.

CCH

Well, if you want the engraving to stand out. Nickle is the best and French Grey is the second. Nickle tends to shine everything up but leave even the smallest tooling marks left by the gravers. French Grey seems to matte everything slightly to an even finish. Like a light bead blast. I have seen European engravers black the engraving after plating or finishing with some sort of wax stick and then rub it out with a soft cloth to make the fine lines stand out better. With bluing the engraving tends to start disappearing at 3 or 4 feet unless it's high relief. Case hardening makes fine to medium engraving almost invisible until you get your nose on the receiver.
The best thing to do is Google all of the finishes and look at a few hundred pictures.

Whatever H&H do to finish their silvered receivers truly shows it off the best, IMHO.

I know what all the finishes look like; I have seen them in person. I am asking for your opinion so I can either reinforce, or change, mine. I do value all AR member's opinions on the topic.

I have several browning that are French gray with inked back grounds, I think they out very nice, also have a Belgium engrave model 42 that French gray. Blued does do much and case leaves a lot to be desired, and nickel or sliver to much shine. Its all personal as to what floats your boat..

Since you're asking opinions, I like a matte hard chrome look with the engraving blacked to really show up.

I like FN-Browning engraving :








Both shotgun and double rifle engraving are signed (left side of receiver, right and below). The B25, by P.Arno and the CCS25 by FN's former master engraver José Baerten.

I like the French grey ; really makes the engraving stand out. With just a bit of scroll and border work, CCH for sure. Just my opinion.
Cheers
Rick

Since you're asking personal preference, I prefer bluing.

Ok, thanks very much for all your input; here is the answer (borne out by some of your comments too);
CCH: While I love color case hardening, it tends to hide engraving details and I think it is best used alone or with simple borders since it does not need any embellishment to look great.
Bluing: No, Double Rifles don't look right with blued frames. And it doesn't bring out engraving either.
French Gray: looks great but is not rust resistant, but a good choice.
Nickel Plating: The best answer and one that is used on a great many double rifles. That is what I was going to do, and you guys reinforced my decision. Thanks.

What about a non-traditional treatment like armoloy? Looks like french gray, but is very wear and corrosion resistant.

It looked good on engraved Contender frames when TC offered that coating.

I think that they call it weathershield these days.

Jeremy

Electroless nickel is easy to apply and is hard, and rustproof. I don't now anything about Armaloy.
I went to their web site; Armaloy is chrome, and is harder than nickel; that would be a good way to go too.

quote:

Armaloy is chrome

Isn't chrome installed over nickel?

I'm probably thinking of hard chrome.

find out what blaser does and do the opposite

French Grey.

I do like french gray too, and it is very cheap and easy to do, but it doesn't protect against rust. I know, keep it oiled.

Ramrod,

Decorative chrome is put on over nickel with a copper layer under the nickel.

Hard chrome and thin dense chrome (Armoloy) are applied directly to the steel.

Both are used a lot in industry when a tough wear resistant surface is needed. They also provide great corrosion resistance. We use both in the steel mill I work at with good results.

Thompson Center used to use it on Contenders instead of stainless steel. It really is a nice finish IMHO.

Jeremy

You know what....I don't think you can go wrong whatever you choose (it is just after all that nice engraving work it would be a shame not to accentuate it).
JMHO
Rick

Right; that is the goal, and French Gray (which is not a specified process; there are 10 ways to do it) is probably best. But again, for rust protection and accentuating the engraving, nickel is probably best.

quote:

Decorative chrome is put on over nickel with a copper layer under the nickel. Hard chrome and thin dense chrome (Armoloy) are applied directly to the steel.

Thanks farbedo. Just been too many years. In about 1977 I bought a shops blueing set up because they had as much nickel and chrome work than they could handle. They would do 100s of swivel clips while they took pistols apart and polished them.

Those were the days. Pick up the gun, take it apart polish blue it put it back together deliver for $20 or $25 if they wanted a S&W polish. All relative I guess a MKX barreled action dealer cost was $115.

I know they were doing a "black" chrome as well. Anyway the swiss cheese memory thinks they were doing nickel under something.

But I wouldn't bet a only any of it.