Interesting. Maybe if they had not changed the water so much they would not have had to take a torch to parts 
If I had a part color case hardened and it was then colored with a torch I would have a major fit. Once heated to blue its not a very hard surface anymore.
This sort of thing is epidemic in the gun industry and is a reason I am very careful who I recommend to people. I have spent time fixing SS rifles that past out of some big name shops. The most recent was particularly unforgivable. Just really, really careless, sloppy work that required a barrel replacement.
Dan
The torch enhancement wasn't done on every part. But on the occasional one that came out needing help.
It's more common than many would think in the industry. It may be just the tip of a tang, or the edge of a sideplate, etc. Perhaps a handfull of parts a week got a going over. That's out of several hundred in a week that were CCH.
Not annealing old work before recoloring was a big cause of it,,, he's was always in a hurry. Make more money that way you know...Alot of the old stuff could have had better colors on them than they did if better prep had been done. Like I stated in the original post,,,if people only knew what went on...
Doing an acceptable job is more common than doing it correctly these days unfortuately.
Not recyling the quench water.... We tried reusing it,,tried the addition of several different chemicals in different amounts to enhance the colors as is often stated that works,,tried the air bubble aggitation technique in several ways. None added to and most all decreased the colors.
Some places can use Municiple water for quench, some can't. Too many chemicals in the water and it'll spoil the process. We couldn't use it there and had to rely on filtered rain and snow melt water. Quench temp,,some say 'room temp', some have a specific like 70F.
We used 90F and it worked for the way we did the process.
Every one that does CCH does it in a different way though they may think it's the same as the next guys. The tinyest change in temp, times, pot size, char mix, quench water, drop distance to quench, etc all make a difference. Even the char mix was dried by heating a quantity needed for a run. Any excess moisture in the mix will result in problems in the final finish as it will with charcoal/oil blue done in a furnace.
The often voiced 'reuse the quench water', or 'use XYZ mix ratio', etc doesn't necessarily always hold true. It may for the way one person ,,and cause problems for another.
I know of one individual that did CCH work and absolutely refused to color any part that contained a brazed repair in it.
(There are couple of shotguns that have a brazed in part inside the frame, and brazing repairs are common on older gun parts).
Braze will withstand CCH temps where silver solder will not. However, he said it ruins the pot, cover and even the furnace liner.
Another CCH shop, owner now retired, routinely ran brazed parts through for me with no problems. We did brazed parts too w/o any effect on the equiptment.
Same process,,different results.
I fully agree that there is some sloppy work done. I've seen alot of it first hand and had to fix alot it.
Back then there were 3 or 4 shops offering CCH work. Now there are many individuals doing the work.
No recommendation from me for my former employ.
I'll seek out a smaller shop doing the work like the one shown here when and if I need something done again.
