frizzen

[Daniel]

how would one go about hardening a frizzen with casenite  ?
I have an old lock that needs it. It's an old Spanish lock

[Acer Saccharum]

If you have oxy-acetylene?

[Daniel]

No I do not have access to that. I have a propane torch.

[Daniel]

Ok, I do not have the power tools most of you all have. It is by choice.
Most every thing I have built is completely by hand , when I can. Before
disability I could weld at work and use a torch . Had to steal the time to
do so though. My bows, arrows , horns are all done with stone tools or hand
made ones for my bows. Hand powered or maybe an electric drill to do holes.
I hardened a frizzen years ago but have forgotten how. It was on one of
those old Tower pistols. She sparked good afterwards.

Daniel

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Daniel, you may have trouble getting and holding the orange heat you need to harden your frizzen with case hardening compound. with just a propane torch.  But it's worth a try.

Grind away any cratering that may be in the frizzen's face.  An electric drill and a drum sander wil do it.  Or a file if it's that soft.  Polish the face before you start hardening.

Have a large vessel of room temperature water at hard, into which you will immerse the frizzen when it is ready.  Holding the frizzen with a pair of pliers by the toe area, lay the heat to the frizzen and when it is very red/orange, pour a tablespoon full of Kasenite over the face of the frizzen.  Heat the frizzen up and hold it at that heat until you are bored, and then pour on another spoon full, and repeat.  After these two applications and a good long soak at as high a heat as the torch will provide, drop the frizzen into the water.  Retrieve the frizzen and clean it up, install it and see if it sparks.  Might surprise you.

[Daniel]

Thank you. I have been on meds so long it has been hard to recall. I could remember red and kasenite
but reheat was a blank. Greatful

[rich pierce]

There's a small chance that more will harden than the face, so check everything with a fine file.  If it skitters like on glass around the pivot hole and tail, you'll need to temper those areas to at least purple to prevent the frizzen from failing there. 

[Mark Elliott]

With that torch and a fire brick,  make yourself a tiny furnace to heat that frizzen.   Just bore a hole in the brick big enough for the frizzen with an intersecting hole just big enough for the torch head.  Put the frizzen down in there covered with kasenite and heat for 15 or 20 minutes at a bright red then quench in room temp water.   Put the hardened frizzen in the oven at 375 for 30 minutes and let air cool.

[Artificer]

This is something I picked up from a friend many years ago, because we often worked on Italian or even more poorly made European parts of questionable quality of casting and/or steels.

For dropping the part into water after heat soaking the Kaseniit:
 
Take a clear plastic container of 4" by 4" or 6" by 6" and about 10 to 12 inches tall.  Fill with water to within two inches or so of the top.  Pour enough clear mineral oil in to get a one inch depth of oil on the top of the water.  When the part is ready, allow it to drop freely through the oil and water.  With the container being clear, you can easily "fish" out the part with long pliers. 

Now, I don't know if science supports this, but the idea is that the heated part does not hit so much "shock" of cooling in straight water as it goes through the oil first.  Thus it doesn't allow the parts to crack as easily when they first hit the water.  What I do know is that even with the most questionably made foreign or cast parts or original parts,  they don't crack when quenched that way as I have sometimes seen parts crack when quenched in water alone.. 

Gus

[LRB]

  Chances are, if the part is subject to crack in water, it is probably high carbon and doesn't need the Kasenit, just a good hardening quench and temper. Other than a commercial quench oil, warmed canola oil will give the fast quench needed for a frizzen. However it would seem that many of Euro frizzens are mild steel and do need added carbon. If Kasenit is used to add carbon, it will have to be repeated before too long if used often because it does not penetrate but a few thousandths. A longer term solution would be a half sole, or pack hardening.  Anyone that has Kasenited a frizzen, and had it last for hundreds of shots, really didn't need to Kasenit it. It was already high carbon.

[Bob Roller]

What make of lock is this one that needs a frizzen rehardened. Some are "mystery metal"
and others may or may not be high carbon.I use Kasenit and oil quench the frizzen.
No problems reported.

Bob Roller

[Daniel]

Not sure on make of lock. It may be an old CVA or Japanese . Looks like a Maslin style.

[J.D.]

A better method of hardening the frizzen would be pack hardening. A search should reveal several threads on the process.