A couple of case color hardened Kibler locks

[David Rase]

Took a break from barrel inletting this week and case color hardened a couple of Kibler locks for a friend.  Hardened and tempered, and yes Wayne, I had to "massage" the lock plates a bit to remove a slight warp.  Top photo are the dry locks and the bottom photo are the locks sprayed with WD 40. 
R/David

[Austin]

Looks great!

[Cory Joe Stewart]

It is good to hear you are taking orders for case hardening projects! 

Cory Joe

[rich pierce]

Looks fantastic. Any post- quench treatments?  Oops just read more carefully. Tempered.

[Daryl]

David you mentioned tempered. I assume an oven was used. What temperature if I may ask?

[David Rase]

David you mentioned tempered. I assume an oven was used. What temperature if I may ask?

425 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour. 

[Tim Crosby]

 Dang David, they look Great. What a transformation. How many order have you gotten

   Tim

[JPK]

Very nice! Much like I did to mine.
AA0149F3-4E50-45BB-8CAC-B4D4D9909E96 by Oliver Sudden, on Flickr

[Daryl]

Thanks David.

[Bryan Enoch]

Looks great.  Can you explain your process please?

Thanks

[smylee grouch]

Very attractive and probably adds function as a rust inhibitor

[Kurt]

Very nice!

[David Rase]

Looks great.  Can you explain your process please?

Thanks

Bryan, I have 2 more locks to case color harden in the next week.  I wanted to photograph/document the process for a tutorial on these 2 locks, but since it has been over 2 years since I last did this work I needed to make sure I remembered the process.  I also need to locate all my equipment and tools since I moved into a new work shop.  I will work on getting a tutorial up in the next week.  I plan on doing one of the remaining locks on Tuesday.
R/David

[David Rase]

Looks fantastic. Any post- quench treatments?  Oops just read more carefully. Tempered.

Rich,
One thing I did different is I used a 1/4" piece of square stock on screwed to the back side of the lock plates hoping to reduce the chance of warpage.  What I did discover was that the 1/4" piece of square stock acted as a heat sink.  If you look closely at both lock plates you will see that the centers of the lock plates are pretty dark blue, and there is a grey halo formed around the outside edge.  This was an interesting pattern that I had not witnessed before when I did not use a strongback. On a side note, warpage, though slight, was about the same with or without a strongback.  This makes me want to experiment a bit using shielding around the parts.
R/David 

[CooleyS]

Thank you for taking the time and effort to make a tutorial on your process. I am looking forward to learn more about how to case harden and hopefully try my hand at it. Wyoming Armory does a fantastic job, but it’s pricey and I just want to be able to do it myself.
-Steve