Rehardening frizzens - one size fits all? Musings for metallurgy masterminds....

[Coinneach]

Or like I have done old used hack saw blade with the teeth ground off and shaped then silver solder it on.

I've seen it done here "Down Under" and the boys say it lasts well into the years.

 

[Coinneach]

Never had any luck with cherry red. I have wrapped the frizzen in leather, stuck it in a soup can packed with leather and put it in the glowing coals of a fire for an hour. Then drop it in a tub of cool water.

This technique was shared with me by someone older than dirt who said that the way they used to do it. I don't know, but its worked 3 different times for me.

Thats my preferred option, done it a couple of times and it works very well.

Grind up some dry bones into powder and mix it all with a little water into a damp slurry, cut out some reasonably thick leather and soak it in water, then sew it up into a bag like container that will be a loose fit over the Frizzen face (removed from Lock), slip the damp leather bag over the Frizzen and pack the Bone powder slurry on the Frizzen face only.
Then wrap reasonably thin soft tie wire side by side, lay spiralled all the way down the Frizzen so the leather bag is completely covered (holds "the "innards" intact during the heat treatment) and go to it.

The trick is all in the preparation.
It really does work a treat and you'll find it primevaly satisfying to have done it yourself.

 

[BEP]

Got to join in here. Seems like whenever I read about someone using Kasenit to harden a frizzen face, they follow the directions that come with the product. Those directions weren't written with frizzen hardening in mind. I bought a lot of Kasenit when it was available (fortunately) and use it in a slightly different manner. I hold the frizzen flat, face up, using a wire coat hanger as a holder. I heat the frizzen to past red to orange, then apply a thick coating of Kasenit. I use an old fashioned blowtorch - the kind that burns Coleman fuel - as a heat source and I hold it at heat for around 30 minutes. My "soak" is determined by how long the fuel lasts in that torch. From time to time I sprinkle a bit more Kasenit on the frizzen face. For a quench. I use a mixture of two quarts very thin motor oil and a quart of transmission oil at room temperature. I make sure to swirl the frizzen around in the oil so it constantly comes in contact with fresher, cooler oil.

My son is a member of a reenactment group. I've done a number of frizzens for him and other members (and other people as well, of course) and have always had very good results. It's not unusual for those guys to fire 100 rounds or so per event. The frizzens I've hardened have and are still giving good service.

And there will be people who will say "you're doing this or that or something else completely wrong " - there always is - but my method works very well. I sometimes think that the frizzens that were casehardened are castings, not forgings or milled out of solid stock, and thus may be more porous. Not a metallurgist so just a guess. Never used Cherry Red. I've got enough Kasenit to outlast me so can't speak to Cherry Red's effectiveness.

 

[beardedhorse]

Either Fred Stutzenburger or the Bevel Brothers in Muzzle Blasts highly recommends never using the depleted uranium frizzen material. Hazardous to breathe particulate matter or come in contact with people on the firing line as well as yourself. Used it once in the 70's and still have a full piece from Russel K. Hamm formerly in Florida. Hope whoever I sold the depleted uranium soled lock to knows about the warnings and discontinue using it . Like Kasenit, it is no longer available. Case hardening a frizzen will require annealing the tail of the frizzen and near the screw hole. Using a pressurized air hose to percolate the water you drop the (bone and leather carbon sourced) case hardened frizzen into can give you an attractive mottled pattern. Any pattern on the frizzen face gets scraped away by the flint. Soft soldering a hardened (at non magnetic heat) frizzen sole can be just the right amount of heat to draw down the temper to useable hardness. You could also rivet a tempered sole unto a soft annealed frizzen with brass rod. Both the sole and frizzen are drilled ahead of time when soft to line them up. Alternatively you can use strong epoxy compound on undrilled frizzen to glue on the tempered sole. For any of the sole methods you may have to grind the frizzen back to keep the correct geometry and flint to frizzen distance.

 

[Nav]

I put a .68 Dragoon pistol together with a non-hardened frizzen. I followed the directions and heated it with an acetylene torch to bright red, put the Cherry Red powder on (it melts), and quenched in water. The first one I ruined when my hand bumped the O2 and I cut a nasty divot in it. No cracks, and it sparks very well. YMMV, but this worked perfectly for me, and since I plan to shoot this .68 horse pistol only once in a while, so if I get 200 shots I'll probably be in the ground by the time it gives up the ghost.

Not sure what the reaction is/was with the Cherry Red, but the results speak for themselves.