Colonial gunsmith??

[Luke]

Ive been watching wallace gusler dvd from 1969,trying to learn as much as possible,so can someone explain the reason for putting leather and old bone with some charcoal in a crucible and putting the lock parts in with all the stuff what was that doing to the lock parts.thanks guys,luke

[RAT]

Traditional case hardening. These parts would have been made from wrought iron... not steel. Wrought is soft and would wear quickly. Case hardening adds carbon to the surface to make it better resist wear.

[Dphariss]

Ive been watching wallace gusler dvd from 1969,trying to learn as much as possible,so can someone explain the reason for putting leather and old bone with some charcoal in a crucible and putting the lock parts in with all the stuff what was that doing to the lock parts.thanks guys,luke

Look up color case hardening or carburizing. It adds a  layer of carbon to iron or mild steel and allows the surface to harden when dumped in water out of the pack. This improves corrosion resistance to some extent and greatly reduces the wear on parts and makes a lock "slicker".

Dan

[E.vonAschwege]

This improves corrosion resistance to some extent and greatly reduces the wear on parts and makes a lock "slicker".

Dan

For certain it makes a lock "slicker".  Part of me says "Eric, there's no way your hands are sensitive enough to 'feel' the difference between case hardened parts working versus not", but the slickest and smoothest functioning locks I've ever handled were case hardened and had bearing surfaces polished like a mirror (that includes frizzen and sear pivot bolts as well).  

[Acer Saccharum]

Maybe I'm making it up, but the colonial Davis I casehardened is MUCH faster once casehardened. Maybe we need to do a mythbuster, like with Pletch's high speed videos, A speed trial movie with 'before and after' casehardening.

Pletch, how do like me volunteering you for ANOTHER project? 

[Chris Treichel]

I did a case hardening job like that on a frizzen off a India made musket lock and it actually worked.  Used the stuf the junk into a tin can and toss it in the campfire method. 

[JCKelly]

Plain charcoal, actually made from trees not the pitch-coke stuff you burn in the barbeque, works.

But adding some stuff, like bone charcoal makes the process go faster.

By adding some bone charcoal one may get case colors. Pretty.

Leather does nothing for pretty.
But leather can nitride the surface a bit.
Huh?
Make it harder on the very surface, better for sliding wear. If you like slick, a little leather tends to help.

P.I.T.A. Metallurgist