Robbins lock frizzen

[J.D.]

I would like to get an old rifle shooting again, however, the frizzen on the old Robbins lock is shot through, so to speak. The gun it was on was shot often enough to wear  the frizzen down to knife sharp edges, nor will  the frizzen spark. I would like to find or cobble a replacement frizzen, as the rest of the lock is still in good shape.

I have looked at all of the available locks, in today's market with no success. I can't find any frizzen of that type, anywhere.

I'm hoping someone here might know what type of lock parts Robbins used for his Germanic lock? Or where I might find something that will work?



 

[rich pierce]

Sounds like a perfect candidate for a sole, of thin sheet of high carbon steel attached to the face. This can be done by riveting, soft soldering, or brazing. There are several here who have described how they do this. The results are often superior to a new frizzen.

It’s really not easy to find a frizzen that fits well. So many variables. Width, height of face, distance from face to pivot, shape of the pan cover, length of the toe.

[J.D.]

Thank you Rich. I was considering that, but I'm not sure how it's done. I will look into that.

[rich pierce]

I did a search. Seems like Dave Person covered it well. https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=76692.0

I’ve used pieces cut from old handsaw blades successfully. If soft soldering I find it tricky to bend the thin sheet to match the frizzen perfectly and not have it warp when hardening it before soldering it to the frizzen. But others don’t have this problem. Riveting is very secure and solves that problem as I rivet it then harden it in place. When using braze I fit the sole, leaving it oversized, wire it in place with tie wire, braze until the braze flows, then quench it. The braze flow temp is above the hardening temp for quenching, so, get braze to flow, allow it to just freeze, then quench. I clean up by grinding then filing the overhanging edges with diamond files.

[J.D.]

Thank you for that, Rich.  That is a big help.
I found another thread with lengthy discussions about half soling frizzens.
There is a lot to consider there. It seems there are quite a few ways to skin this cat.

https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=76692.msg760757#msg760757

for those who are interested.

[Blacksmoke]

J.D. ,  I have done this procedure many times , on old antiques as well as contemporary made locks. It called  a
"half soul".  I mostly use a piece of an old wore out file that was not made in China. Anneal the file by heating cherry red. Let cool very slowly by placing the cherry red file in a pile of soft ashes. Leave for many hours till cool enough to touch. Now you can cut the annealed file to fit the profile of the wore out frizzen in both dimensions. You will not need to bend any thing. When it fits the face of the old frizzen in curvature and profile then reharden it by heating it to cherry red and quenching it in ATF fluid. Now It should be too hard to file.  However the face of the old frizzen and the opposing face of the half soul need to be sanded bright. Now you are ready to tin both surfaces with 95-5 leadfree solder. Clamp together with a small C clamp and sweat the two pieces together. The act of sweat soldering will add just enough heat to anneal the old piece of file for the flint to scrape mega sparks. Historically, Most flint & steel strikers were forged from old worn out files.  Hope this helps you with your project and good luck,  Hugh Toenjes

[J.D.]

Thank you for that information. I might try that. I still have a few old, worn out Nicholson files bought at flea markets, back in the day, and a partial roll of Staybright 95-5 solder. I used to do a fair bit of soldering, back in my knife making days.

I also used warmed Dexron ll  transmission fluid for quenching. I found Transmission fluid to be a surprisingly good quench.