Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.
Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight.
We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.
Narrowing it by careful grinding will lighten it proportionally. 20% reduction in width will reduce force by 20%.
thinning it will reduce strength logarithmically. A 20% reduction in thickness will reduce strength by 36%. A 30% reduction in thickness will reduce strength by 51%. Be careful if you choose to thin it.
Some Harpers Ferry locks are bashers and the trick is to change the angle of the cock so the flint slices more than bangs the frizzen head on. To do this cut a gap in the front of the “O” in the reinforced cock, bend it closed, then weld or braze.
You may wish to file if you can instead of grind. Grinding generates heat pretty quickly, which may affect the spring temper. Another source of spring weakening.
If you grind, make sure you always go length ways, never across. Polish/emery the ground area to smooth. When I grind and there is a concern for too much heat, my hand is the guide. If it heats up above comfort, I quench and then continue. If it sparks good and in the pan without eating flints I would not do anything with the spring.
Flintlocklar
I draw file the inside of the mainspring to make it weaker, this way I have alot of control and no gouging. I follow up with various grits of sandpaper on a wood block and finish with emery cloth.