Case hardened colors by Uberti?

[gilabill]

I have just purchased a Uberti-imported 1873 20" short sporting rifle and the case hardened-colored receiver is very attractive. My question: Does Uberti do this with a true case hardening process (called carburizing, I believe), that is, with a hot charcoal/bone dust (or something like that) fire that deprives the surface of the metal of oxygen and results in surface-hardened and stronger steel as well as the nice rainbow of surface colors after being quenched in water? The reason I ask is that over at the SASS forum (as I recall), someone has authoritatively stated that nowadays case coloring is a marketing tool and just a "fancy dye job" to the metal surface and is not done like the old heating/quenching process at all. How does Uberti do it? Anybody know? Is it durable, since old-style case colors tend to go away, right? Inquiring minds want to know...Thanks.

[kapwing]

great question...

[Will]

I don't know if Uberti does real case harding, but there metal does apear harder than other makers.

I've got a 51' navy made by Uberti that I shoot a lot and has just a little bright spot on the cylinder pin(it looks case hardened) from flame cutting, the Piettas I've got have been shot about the same or a little less and have notches cut into them. Could be the pin is just harder steel, but it acts like a good case harding job.

[Rollershooter]

Color Case hARDENING WILL FADE REGARDLESS OF WHICH TECHNIQUE IS USED. tHE bONE pACK METHOD WILL LAST LONGER THAN THE CHEMICAL PROCESS. bOTH CAN BE PROLONGED IN THE FADING BY THE CAREFUL APPLICATION OF A CLEAR COAT. i BELIEVE THE FORIEGN ( iTALIAN) FIREARMS ARE CHEMICALLY COLORED BUT HAQRDENED BY HEAT, AND HAVE THE CLEAR COAT ALREADY APPLIED. jUST MY OPINION AND YOU KNOW WHAT THAT IS WORTH.