L & R Locks question for Jerry Huddleston & Bob Roller

[P.W.Berkuta]

Jerry on another forum I had a post about a lock plate & bridle that I made for a lock that was not up to par. You replied -- "I have used a lot of L$R locks over the years. Most of them I had to work on but I was glad to get the locks because of the appearance and style. Most of the work was heat treating. Most of their internals were too hard and had a tendency to break. I just re tempered them."
My question is for you and Bob Roller - what temperature did you use for the tumbler, stirrup link, and sear. In the past I also have had internal parts break on these locks and I want to preclude any part breakage on this lock as I got some time invested in it.



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[jerrywh]

 I tempered mine to abut 600 ° or 625°.   That's pretty close to what Jim Chambers uses on his internals.  It is harder than a spring and pretty strong.   Another thing about some of L&R locks I had to move the  cock position on some of them by extending the nose of the sear some.   The cock was so close to the frizzen on the half cock I couldn't get the frizzen closed.  I think they have fixed that problem though.

[Bob Roller]

Jerry on another forum I had a post about a lock plate & bridle that I made for a lock that was not up to par. You replied -- "I have used a lot of L$R locks over the years. Most of them I had to work on but I was glad to get the locks because of the appearance and style. Most of the work was heat treating. Most of their internals were too hard and had a tendency to break. I just re tempered them."
My question is for you and Bob Roller - what temperature did you use for the tumbler, stirrup link, and sear. In the past I also have had internal parts break on these locks and I want to preclude any part breakage on this lock as I got some time invested in it.



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I have never used ANY L&R internal parts. I have my own ideas and ways so I can't help with this question.
I used only the EXTERNAL parts of their Manton/Egg/Ashmore and then made my own mechanisms.
I still get requests to "tune"other makers locks but won't touch them.

Bob Roller

[P.W.Berkuta]

Thanks guys for your info. I will heat treat the internals to take out some of the brittleness. I have made some lock internals out of 0-1 in the past when I had the "energy" but now I buy the parts .