VINTAGE

Emphasizing the sleek appearance of your firearm doesn’t have to come at the cost of effectiveness!

WALTHER’s case color hardening combines both proven functionality and distinctive aesthetics to a degree that simply cannot be achieved by using any other heat treatment available today. Due to the unique process, the special earth-colored effects that result from treated metal parts are highly individual, allowing for each WALTHER Vintage pistol to truly stand out as an exclusive firearm.

Case hardening is a historically traditional process of utilizing technology in gunsmithing mainly to achieve both a higher hardness on the surface, as well as increasing wear resistance. For this purpose, the treated material is deeply enriched with carbon in a granulate of wood, leather and bone charcoal which is then hardened in water through a quenching process. The more complex a component is, the more experience and skill is required to perform this process successfully. During quenching, the steel oxidizes, which helps to form different oxide layers of varying thickness in dynamic colors such as brown, green, yellow, blue, and even magenta. The surface hardness this process establishes in our color-hardened components reaches generally 45–55 HRC. The colorful surface also features a remarkably effective corrosion protection, which is additionally increased by an approx. 1/1000” thin layer of special protection paint.

The beautifully marbled and cloud-like shimmering color effects that result from the cooling process of the treated metal parts are incredibly exceptional on every single WALTHER Vintage handgun. With a case-color-hardened pistol, you can hold a truly unique representation of WALTHER’s ingenuity and proficiency in your hands.