Need help with a DGW frizzen

[P.Bigham]

Club member gave a DGW lock that wasn’t sparking to repair. Round 1 took up to cherry red quenched in transmission oil. Heated foot to blue temper. It was to soft.  Round 2 heated cherry red applied kasenet quenched in hot water. Tempered foot blue and frizzen face straw. Still no sparks.  Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[jerrywh]

  Is it too hard or too soft???  Can you file the face of it ?

[Bob Roller]

  Is it too hard or too soft???  Can you file the face of it ?

The file IS the test. Some of these DGW locks were almost hopeless cases and
trying to get a replacement frizzen or anything else is difficult.I never heard of
a hot water quench and how long was the heat applied. You have to "soak" it
in a very hot fire like an acetylene torch or a plumbers "B" unit which is what
I use.Next step is a hard face or "half sole" as some call it.

Bob Roller

[rich pierce]

Before tempering you need to know it got hard; too hard.  Then and only then do you temper it.  If after hardening you can file it with a new fine file it did not get hard and so tempering would only make things worse. 

[P.Bigham]

OK.  Put frizzen in propane forge for about 10 minutes. Removed at orang color and quenched in transmission fluid. Test with new chainsaw file it will leave very faint marks is that hard enough?  Next step?  Thanks.

[jerrywh]

 Now put it in the kitchen over at 350° F to 400°F .for an hour.  If you temper at 400F you will get more sparks but it will not last as long as tempered at 350° 

[cshirsch]

Oh my....

[bgf]

Now put it in the kitchen over at 350° F to 400°F .for an hour.  If you temper at 400F you will get more sparks but it will not last as long as tempered at 350°

This worked great for me on a frizzen that was too hard, but I put it in a soup can filled with fine sand to stabilize temps (saw this idea on the old, old board, I think).  My oven was surprisingly stable, but I monitored with a separate thermometer as well.  I did it a couple of times at least  before I got the spark I wanted, ended at around 390, I believe.  It was amazing that the temper colors were spot on for the oven temp, although I guess it shouldn't be.

Later I took it back to the maker for some new springs, and they asked how I got it to spark so well when they tested it.

[P.Bigham]

Jerry put in kitchen oven 1 hr At 350. No sparks thanks for your time and advise I appreciate it.  I have done this to 2 chambers kits with good results.  But this is a challenge.

[jerrywh]

 What kind of flint is in that lock ?  There were some frizzens cast years ago that had a lot of chrome in them and they did not spark well at all no matter what you did.  Could be you get one of them. That was about 20 years ago.  Change the flint and see what happens. Also try the lock with the frizzen spring removed. I know it sounds weird but try it anyway.

[Rwnblack]

I have a very nice rifle built in the 1970's but the builder used a DGW lock (As more warranted) that had a terrible frizzed on it.  I ground the frizzen, bent it a bit so it had the curve I wanted then silver soldered a piece of file to it that I ground down to fit.  Now it sparks like crazy and the flints last really well.  The silver solder I have is high temperature silver solder like brazing.  It is a roll about 1/2' wide but only a few thousands thick.  I clamp the pieces together with this in between , heat it red hot with flux.  Then I quenched it while it was still very hot. Awfully hard on my long nose vice grip but well worth it.I don't think the rifle was used much before I got it because of the frizzen.