French grey?

[gmkmd]

Is the French Grey finish a type of plating, or is it just a matte finish applied to bare steel?

[Kirk]

It's a case hardening process and unless you get engraving I feel it looks ridiculous on a Sharps!!

[Luke]

Truth

[Randy Bohannon]

Very honest evaluation from Kirk.

[kwilliams]

I had a Big Timber 1874 pre Bryan that had a matte french grey finish barrel, action, butt plate, lever etc. It picked up black powder stains and eventually was just ugly. I stripped it all off with B9 NICKEL STRIPPER, had it re color cased and barrel rust blued. It is a looker now.
kw

[gmkmd]

That's what I was wondering about; I would think that it would discolor very easily. With a lot of engraving, it looks nice, but without, it looks like the gun left the factory before it was finished.

[Luke]

A french grey barrel? I cannot imagine Wolf doing something like that! I suspect Bubba may have took a hand there. . .

[gmkmd]

Follow-up question; if you completed (second hand) gun in French Gray, and then want to have it engraved, can that be done? Or does it have to be engraved before they do the final hardening or finishing?

[Luke]

Engraved first. If already hardened I believe it would have to be annealed, then rehardened.