tweek a cock

[walt53]

I was wondering if you could heat and tweek a cock with out having to temper it after. it appears to be fairly soft which leads me to think it should be ok to heat to adjust so to line up with the frizzen better. thanks in advance.  walt

[rich pierce]

Flint cocks are typically made of mild steel and can often be bent cold. The big thing to watch for is to not bend it at all from the tumbler hole to the shoulder that acts as a stop against the lockplate else it could slip when fired with very bad consequences.

[Hungry Horse]

 Years ago I had an old kit gun flinter that made good sparks but deposited them outside the pan. So, the ignition was hit, and miss, at best. An old buck skinner saw my problem, and told me to bring my gun by his camp later. I did, and a expecting to see a very technical cure, with highly specialized tools, that would take considerable time. He grabbed my rifle, took a box end wrench that fit over the cock, and cock screw, put a little pressure on the cock to bend it down toward the pan, and handed it back to me. The gun was fixed that fast, and continued to shoot fine until I sold it.

  Hungry Horse

[Tim Ault]

I have a small Dixie mtn rifle lock and had to bend the cock quite a bit to get it to strike at a proper location on the frizzen . Heated with torch and bent upwards with a open end wrench and just let it air cool no problems at all with it since .