Depth of color case hardening?

[Dranoel]

How far into the steel does case hardening go? Will it effect the steel deeper than bluing?

 

The reason I ask is that I was having an idea for my next project and wanted to try something different. Most of my builds I blue then slide the polish the flats back down to bare metal. But I'm wondering if I can case harden the slide, then blue over top of the case hardening and then polish the bluing off the flats to take it back down to a polished color case hardening. Can I even blue over CCH?

Edited August 8, 2019 by Dranoel

[Yondering]

A few things to point out:

- "Case hardening" is a broad category that covers a lot of different hardening processes and depths. Nitride treatment, for example, is case hardening.

- Color case hardening is one category of case hardening with varying methods to achieve it, but generally it is mostly decorative and the hard zone is relatively shallow. 

- The appearance of color case hardening is purely cosmetic and is easily worn off or removed, and sometimes will fade on it's own. If you blue a color case hardened surface, that color is gone. You can't polish off the blue and expect anything but bright steel underneath. 

[Dranoel]

All I needed to know.  Thanks.