Case color on Italian levers

[kimwcook]

Do the Italians still use the chemical process to get their case colors or are they now using the traditional method?

[Ysabel Kid]

IIRC, it is chemical. I'm pretty sure I read it here too - on the "old forum".

[KirkD]

Everything I've seen coming out of Italy is the chemical treatment. It does not look the same as the bone and charcoal method. I prefer the bone and charcoal method by a long shot, but that is just my personal preference.

[kimwcook]

The one Cimarron Colt SAA clone I had in the past was chemical. I don't recall at the moment what I used but I was able to give it an antique look by wiping a large portion of the loud coloring off, short of the blued areas. They seemed blued and didn't wipe off.

[KirkD]

In general, the bone and charcoal patterns are affected by the thickness of the metal, screw holes, and metal edges, whereas the chemical patterns appear to be more random and the colors don't look right to me.

[KCSO]

All this time I thought they used Crayola! The CASE on the Ities actualy sevres no usefull purpose as it doesn't harden anything, its just for show. The interesting thing is that real case colour was to harden the metal and pretty was just an accident, actually good case will fade in sunlight and if you take a fine case coloured gun and leave it two weeks in the sun the colours will disappear.

[Buck Elliott]

IIRC, The case on the Italian leverguns is achieved by a cyanide case-hardening process, which does not give the colors obtained by the "traditional" bone/leather charcoal process, nor is the cyanide case as hard, deep and durable as the charcoal case...

That said, I really like the muted colors on my Uberti '73. After many, many miles of scabbard- & hand-carry, the color is starting to fade -- slowly -- on the bottom front portion of the receiver.

My Beretta Stampede revolvers have a faux finish, much like the 'paint' Sturm, Ruger used on the Old Model Vaquero. When that finish wears away (and it does...) you are left with a gray, metallic surface. The receivers of these guns are through-hardened, of appropriate steel, and do not 'need' the hard case.

[KCSO]

Yeah, don't get any carb cleaner on your Stampede!

[marlinman93]

Real case colors (bone and charcoal) don't really harden the metal, they do harden the surface only. True casehardening is a surface treatment, and gives no real strength to the metal.

[Grizzly Adams]

I don't know what kind of CC treatment Uberti uses on their 1873 but it is durable! I have a SRC that I have run hard for over 12 years in CAS, and it shows no signs of coming off, or fading. This rifle has been beat around, and cleaned with what ever comes to hand - including carb cleaner, and the metal still looks great. In addition, it has never malfunctioned or let me down - not once! Did I mention that I only shoot BP?

[kimwcook]

Grizzly, what caliber is your Uberti '73? And, what's the accuracy like.

[J Miller]

Hope this isn't too out of place but; would it not make sense to think Uberti uses the same coloring method on their revolvers that they do on their rifles? The reason I ask is my IJ still has some pretty blatant colors even after being abused and being over 30+ years old.

When I got it there was a clear coat on the frame, that's long gone now. There's been Hoppe's on it, other cleaners too. But the colors are still there.



If Uberti is using the same coloring method they used on these older Cattleman revolvers, it's no wonder Grizzly Adams 1873 still has it's color.

Joe

[jlchucker]

I don't know about Italian "Winchesters", but the model 92's that EMF imports (Rossi) has a hardening thatapparently goes all the way through my receiver - that receiver is HARD. I had my gunsmith drill and tap my 44 mag (pre-safety) for a side-mount receiver sight, and he found that the receiver was hard all the way through. Whether or not that is because of "case-coloring" or not is something else again. Case-color hardening typically isn't that deep. I haven't lugged the rifle around enough yet to see if the colors go away and the receiver stays gray. this gunsmith is an old guy with many years of experience on leverguns, and he actually praises the Rossi design as being, in some ways, an improvement on old Winchesters. I'll take take him at his word on that part--I myself have never had either apart, and he's worked on hundreds, if not thousands. Although color-hardened receivers are mentioned as an option in the 1905 Winchester catalog (repro) that I have, apparently they never did make many Winnies of any type with color hardening. Almost all of the old originals you see were blued.

[Grizzly Adams]

Grizzly, what caliber is your Uberti '73? And, what's the accuracy like.

The SRC is chambered in 357, but for CAS I shoot 38spl. I also have an Uberti 1873 in 44WCF and an Uberti Henry 1860 in 44WCF. Accuracy on all of them is excellent. I rarely punch paper, but any of these will ring the steel (18" plate) out to 300 yards if I do my part . The Henry 1860 is the most accurate of any.