broken frizen

[RichG]

received a gun in the mail and the post office broke the frizen off.  what is the chance of welding it together and having it line up properly with the cock and pan? not a welder myself. I'm going to check and see if I can get a new one ,but may need to repair this one. NSW officers fusil. I know they're out of business,but if anyone has any parts?

[SingleMalt]

Which lock is it and could you post some photos?  I've never heard of welding a frizzen back together, but I've been wrong several times before.  Measure the frizzen for height, width, length, and pan area.  Someone has something that will either fir outright or can be fitted.

[RichG]

singlemalt
good idea. It's a north star west lock. 6" long on an officers fusil. maybe a bess frizen? half to dig out my TOW catalog.

[jerrywh]

 It depends on the welder. I could for $150.00 but won't. Most people who could won't.  It would need to be annealed and case hardened afterwards.

[RichG]

here's a picture

[PPatch]

I'll bet if you contacted the company you bought it from they would provide a replacement frizzen to you.

dp

[jerrywh]

 That frizzen should never have broken there. That is faulty heat treating.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I agree Jerry, but it surely can be welded .  I have a friend here in town that uses a mig welder like a magic wand.  I would have him heat sink the frizzen face, and weld it up.  Try a good metal fabricating shop.   But don't be surprised if it costs between $50 and $100.

Taylor

[Bob Roller]

I would think that between Jim Chambers and R.E.Davis there would be a match
or close one that can be adapted.

Bob Roller

[RichG]

I had a local guy weld a small trigger guard that I broke trying to bend. I think I'll try that first , even if i have to re-heat treat.
North Star West is out of business but I might try to contact them and see if they have any spare parts.
If I covered the frizen with heat sink putty could it be welded without loosing temper?
for 50-100 dollars i'd do it tomorrow.
wish the Oregon gun makers fair was sooner, could get some good hands on advice. And thanks everyone for your advice/opinions. this forum is always helpful.

[rollingb]

singlemalt
good idea. It's a north star west lock. 6" long on an officers fusil. maybe a bess frizen? half to dig out my TOW catalog.

If you think a Pedersoli Bess frizzen will fit (or can be made to fit), I can send you one.

Won't cost you anything. 

[Bigmon]

If the welder would stick the frizzen in a large potato and weld in several shorter passes it might not affect the harness. 
I know it sound crazy but I did just that on a build needing to build up the face of the frizzen where it contacts the barrel.  I had used a pc of 1/8" brass on the lock bolster and wanted the frizzen to match but did not like the idea of soldering brass on the frizzen as it would probably get knocked off.
It works fine and sparks great with no heat treatment needed.
I will post a few pics once I get time.
But my question is, how on earth did that frizzen get broken.  It might have been from poor hear treatment? 

[JCKelly]

You might tell the welder he is gonna weld, essentially, a file. Your frizzen is about that hard, with about 1% carbon in it.

Don't worry about loosing the temper. Ya gotta lose it to weld the thing.

Problem will be finding a guy used to welding tool steel, and not letting him talk you into using a 312 stainless weld filler.
The thing should be annealed first anyway, to soften it before someone tries to weld it. Then maybe at least tempered 1000-1200F or so after welding and before re-hardening

When one does not temper the neck of the frizzen a bit softer it does indeed break there. At inconvenient times.

Thy P.I.T.A. metallurgist