Irascible
02-02-2013, 09:54 AM
I never had a problem with gas check use until I got two new boxes of 45 cal Hornadys. These seem different, the corners are more rounded and they seem harder or maybe just more springy. So, I decided to anneal them via the pipe nipple in the coals method. I bought 5" X 1 1/4" nipple (threaded on both ends), threaded a cast cap on one side and threw in two wooden match sticks, without heads (to ignite and use up the oxygen), filled the pipe with checks, threw in two more match sticks and screwed on the other cap. I then placed it in the coals of my wood stove for an hour, turned it over and left it in for another hour. It was glowing a dull red when I pulled it out too cool. After cooling I opened it up and dumped out the checks. Some were the color of case hardening, some were gold, some were a dull copper and some looked like they hadn't been touched. I then tried the rest of the box, which didn't fill up the pipe. They all turned case coloring blue. It seems to me that if I do it again, I should not fill the pipe all the way as happened in the second batch.
So, the questions are,
1) Did they all get hot enough?
2) Will the different colors equate to different hardness?
3) Which would be the right color?
4) Should I re-heat the non blue checks to bring them to the blue color?
So, the questions are,
1) Did they all get hot enough?
2) Will the different colors equate to different hardness?
3) Which would be the right color?
4) Should I re-heat the non blue checks to bring them to the blue color?