Making A Silk Purse out of a Sow's Ear

[Alan de Enfield]

Though from the comments about this by Peter Laidler that you(?) recently reposted, one has to wonder if some bodies actually got any substantive hardening at all - or at least whether they got it in the right places.

Peter has, in a number of posts, stated :

"The rifle body is induction hardened at these points (the locking lugs) to a depth of .004 - .006" but we have found it deeper".

"Another problem they encountered was that with the speed of wartime production, the induction hardening of the bodies was at best, mediocre, and at worst, sometimes virtually non existant. The hardening sometimes had no depth and it was tested at Base Workshops by the old IZOD impact test method. Apparently, all manufacturers were as bad or good as each other including Savage and LB (I bet that has shocked a few of you who were probably lead to believe that some makers were 'better' than others......)"

"When it was impossible to get CHS, using the old bolt and boltheads then a new bolt, you'd use the gauge bolt do the final check. If this failed then the rifle was scrapped as this calibrated bolt had deemed that the body locking lugs were worn through".

"The gauge bolt will also tell the Armourers whether the body locking lugs are worn unevenly or whether one side of the rifle bolt has run through the hardened shoulder. The rifle will still function perfectly and is suitable for training but NOT for service use"