I had the pleasure of looking over and cycling Chris' new lock while at Dixon's. I have used locks by every commercial maker, and have made plenty of my own - assembled from castings as well as forged while working at Colonial Williamsburg. I always spend a few hours tuning commercial locks. That means removing any casting lines on the outside, polishing and hardening each pivot screw and bearing surface (bridal and lockplate), and balancing the springs. I will continue to use locks of all makes as projects require different styles.
To say I was impressed with this lock is putting it lightly. This CNC lock eliminates small variations in casting and hand assembly tolerances, and felt indistinguishable from the original German lock it is copied from. It felt like a swiss watch. The bearing surfaces are guaranteed to be true, and the CNC marks that do exist should be taken care of with fine grit backed sandpaper. Any extra money spent on the lock will be saved in the hours of tuning.
On the subject of carburizing the frizzen. The frizzens on the locks I built at Williamsburg were forged of iron, case hardened for 3-4 hours (depended on my patience level), and threw a shower of sparks in a different manner than a cast steel frizzen. They both work, as cast frizzens have proven for half a century, but I like that this lock is trying something "new" (or should I say old?). The lock on the "sacrificial" rifle at the Williamsburg shop got cycled roughly 3 dozen times a day, 365 days a year, and wore into the soft iron after a year and a half - figure 12-15,000 cycles? The carburizing method will be deeper than my case hardening was, so I for one won't worry about wearing it out. If I do, a CNC replacement will simply screw into place - no careful fitting required.
Looking forward to it!
-Eric