Spoke with Charles Danner today regarding this frame. He also agrees that heat treating should not be done. The heating process itself will change the color of the lug area and the rust blue would likely be spotty. One concern I had was the attachment iron was able to form the lug as the iron was clearly harder steel. That is to say the initially, the iron was very tight and would not fit the lug. I tapped it on with a rubber mallet and the connection loosened up. I expected to have to use a Dremel tool to remove some material. I was surprised at how soft the lug seemed. However, CD said the he has had to file that area over the years, and it is typically soft, so now I am not going to worry about it.
The machine work on the lug cost me $525.00. There clearly needs to be more competition in this area, but this was my only option to get it done in a 3 month time frame. I am satisfied with the work done by Pistol Bill on GB. If I wanted the serial numbers to all match, this seems to be the only option. CD expected the rust bluing on the frame should cost about $75.00.
Oh, thanks everyone for your insights!
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