Frizzen Opinions

[planefixer da50]

Dixie has 3/32 spring steel. make a feather pattern of fritzzen, transfer to steel plate, saw out,file to dress edges. with file roughup the backside. with 3 dowel sticks,2 under, one on top use small hammer get the curve to match fritzzen . butter tub with heavy brine n canola oil on top. get sole cherry red all over. then dunk in brine till cooled well. at this point can snap like glass with thumb n fingers. next for 2.5 hrs. place in toast oven set at 250 deg.. solder is fine, j-b works fine. use alchol to clean finger prints on back n fritzzen clamp with clothes pins. have finished many t/cs n all still many sparks. good luck.

 

[FlinterNick]

I reharden my frizzens, the problem for Some is the tempering part, I have a special torch for this, a jewelers torch which works very well, but it can be done with a regular propane torch.

Refacing a frizzen is an option, but I think isn’t necessary in most cases. I would do the following. I had it done once by a gunsmith and the lock never seemed to really work very well, this was for a 1775 representation of a musket that was deemed ‘old and ugly’ for militia use.

1. Normalize the frizzen, heat it to red/orange bright for around 5-10 min (if you’re using propane, the longer the better with a bright orange glow) depending on the size of the frizzen and let it air cool

2. Polish it up remove markings on the face At 150 working up to 220.

3. Reheat to bright orange glow and carborize in kasenite or a mixture of bonemeal and charcoal, I do this several times before quenching.

4. I quench frizzens in ice water mixed with nitrates, this makes a mild case hardening on the surface.(for 6150 steel, 1095 steel I’d use oil).

5. Test the frizzen with a file.

6. Temper the foot To a dark brown or blue color, doesn’t need to be all Over blue but don’t temper too far up the frizzen or you’ll lose hardness for toughness.

** I use a graphite crucible when heating steel, graphite is a heat moderator and works well for small parts.

Your frizzen should give you a good 30-50 rounds and saving your flints, with a reliable spark until its worn down.

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
JC is right. I do this stuff all the time. I put soles on frizzens with soft solder that are badly worn or when I want to add mass to the frizzen. One thing you have to consider is to make sure you have enough clearance between the frizzen face and the pan fence before adding a sole. I use steel from a heavy duty meat cutting band saw blade or if a thinner sole is required, I use 1075 spring steel sheet. I also case harden frizzens when that is the best option. Modern cast frizzens are usually made of high carbon steel and through harden. Theoretically, they don't need to be cased and when they are case hardened, they need to be tempered to at least 375 degrees to avoid breaking. Moreover, I always heat the toe to blue (580 degrees) with a mini-torch to assure it is not brittle. The value of casing a modern cast frizzen is carbon may be burned off the surface of the steel when simply heated to bright red and quenched. By case hardening it, you preserve and add carbon to the surface when hardening. Alternatively, you can lightly grind off the surface of a frizzen that was simply heated and quenched to remove any surface layer that lost carbon. However, case hardening actually adds carbon so case hardened frizzens usually spark better.

dave

 

[M. De Land]

I use iron wire and on parts to be cased as well and the advantage is when it drops through the quench water it holds the charcoal to the metal longer and imparts more color. The carbon mainly is coming from the bone charcoal along with the phosphates that make the colors. The wire is being quenched from all sides and because of its realative diameter and mass it is left brittle to the core. I have cased quite a few entire actions of various models of rifle and always use blocking to lesson wrapage along with sheet metal strips to hold charcoal to the surface in the quench drop. Some of these sheet metal strips have been used over and over again going through the entire cycle. I sectioned one piece of this mild steel strapping that was .040 thick and after six carbonizing cycles at 1400-1525 degrees F with a water quench the center was still ma-liable with the exterior carbon infusion approximately .010-.012 deep as best I could tell. I was surprised the core was still soft in such a thin piece of mild steel and so many casing cycles.
As an aside one soon learns that all pack case hardening involves some degree of metal warpage no matter how tightly it is braced and blocked. It may be very slight but it is always present to some degree. This is the reason 1800 style rifle actions were first soft fitted together with files and bunishers after machining and hard fitted after casing with stones and laps.

One of the mistakes made with open flame carbon infusion is playing the flame around the part allowing oxygen to get into it. If the part is kept inside the neutral flame envelope then oxygen is kept out . This prevents carbon from cooking out causing crystallization. Bone charcoal case hardening works so much better because it keeps out all oxygen and is much longer in duration.
Steel alloys can even be kept in a molten state for quite long periods of time if kept away from oxygen with no loss of strength from burning up. This is easily demonstrated with ox- acetylene welding and steel smelting.