Making a frizzen spring

[David R. Pennington]

I started a new thread for this so as not to hijack Bob Rollers spring thread. (Disclaimer, Bob knows what he is doing, I am a student.)

My forge pattern and filing jig combined.






Cutting pin.




Pin filed.













Shaping finial and fitting to lock.





Ready for heat treating. So far I have more time in filing the finial than in making the whole spring.

[B.Barker]

Looks good to me.

[rich pierce]

I did not see if you bumped up the boss for the screw or started with thick enough stock.  Looks great!

[Rolf]

Beautiful work. I really like the final


Best regards

Rolf

[smart dog]

Hi David,
Very nice post!  I make frizzen springs by cutting into one side of the spring stock where the finial will be, heating that cut section red hot and turning in perpendicular to the rest of the spring.  That forms the base for the finial, then I mound weld on top of it that will form the finial.

dave

[Craig Wilcox]

David, I had always wondered of the little finial was cast in a form or sawn and filed - your pictures clearly show sawn and filed.  Would there be an advantage to having a little female form to tap the finial into?
Good looking spring!

[David R. Pennington]

Rich, I forged the blank out of 7/16” round spring stock. (Old coil helper spring off utility trailer.) I forged it down to about 1/2” x 1/4” rectangular section for enough length to get the spring with a little extra. I then set down the area for the extra material for the pin over anvil edge and pritchel hole. Then I set down the material for the finial with extra so as  to have something to hold onto after I cut it from parent stock. I did this with half face blows off anvil edge. Then I cut it off the parent stock and fullered just ahead of boss for screw and drew it out to proper thickness and taper. All this probably took less time than me typing this.
Craig, if you were making a bunch of these it would pay to make a forging die I suppose, but this was a replacement spring for a lock on one of my rifles so it was a one off.

[Kingsburyarms]

It's great to see the pieces forged, designed and in place that me, as a new guy, still just order online - Wish I could forge a little, but a torch is my limit. Thank you for showing, Jon

[n stephenson]

Nice Work! thanks for posting!

[Ron Wehmeyer]

Nice work , looks good . RW

[Nordnecker]

Nice Work! thanks for posting!

2nd that

[Pukka Bundook]

Very nice work, David!

Please give us details on hardening and tempering as well.

[Bob Roller]

It's great to see the pieces forged, designed and in place that me, as a new guy, still just order online - Wish I could forge a little, but a torch is my limit. Thank you for showing, Jon

A GOOD torch is all that's needed.
David R,contact me with a PM.

Bob Roller

[J. Talbert]

Pretty slick.

Nice work David

Jeff

[David R. Pennington]

Can’t really see it, but the spring is soaking a bit at critical heat in the fire.



I tried twice quenching in oil, but it didn’t seem hard enough so I heated a little chunk of iron in the fire and quenched it in a half a bucket of clean water to warm up the water a bit, then water quenched.




[/u

Tempered spring in molten lead. A new friend I met at Dixons taught me how to do this. Test the lead with a thin pine stick and when the stick quivers insert the spring and keep it in till the lead adheres to spring.
[url=https://ibb.co/dqqtoz]



Tested spring rebound. Traced uncompressed spring, compressed spring gently over and over a little at a time with spring vice untill fully compressed a few times then rechecked with my tracing. Spring fully rebounded with no loss.



Vyacheslav Ivanovich Ivanov

I think I have a good spring now. Lock is working good with a new English flint that leaves sparks frying in the pan.

[Craig Wilcox]

Still loving that finial, and the very nice file work leading up to it.

You are either an outstanding student, or Bob Roller is a fantastic teacher.  Probably a lot of both - Roller could well make one of those in his sleep.

[Curtis]

Nice work there Dave!  A spring to be proud of.

Curtis

[yulzari]

An object lesson. Thank you for that.

[Greg Pennell]

Nicely done...another for the tutorial section, IMO.

Greg

[David R. Pennington]

Well..,. I thought I was done, but turns out my tempering was too soft and spring relaxed a bit after some actual use on the rifle, so I hardened again and tried tempering in burning oil. Still too soft and relaxed after use. I hardened one more time and tempered this time by sight. After reshaping and hardening and polishing, I laid spring on a heavy piece of steel and heated the steel plate turning the spring on the plate frequently to get the color even all over and brought it to a deep purple nearing blue. Shot a match with the rifle Saturday (25-30 rounds) and so far it is holding up.
So much for mystery steel for lock springs. I aquired some nice spring stock samples, 1095 and 1075 from a good friend the other day so my next one will not be made from junk.