Hardening a striker

[goon]

I just bought a striker today at a gun show and it seems to have been incompletely hardened. Part of it throws decent sparks but the other half of the face seems kind of soft and has been easily gouged by the flint. Is there any way I can go about hardening this striker with say a torch (both propane and Mapp gas) or maybe a good, hot fire?
It's well made and I can tell the smith was skilled, but it only cost ten bucks so shipping it back to him to be rehardened would be kind of pointless. Thanks.

 

[wayne1967]

You'll need to get it red hot for the quinch. Where a magnet will not stick to it. Your probably going to have to add some oxygen to it. I don't think Mapp gas will get it hot enough but I could be wrong. Have not used it much. I've used a campfire to get a piece red hot to anneal it though.

 

[JamesG]

If you have a chimmeny for starting natural charcol it might work to get it hot enough.Next could build a fire and throw it in and watch it.

 

[LRB]

Mapp gas will get it plenty hot, but you also have to decide on your quench. 130°Canola oil is the safest to not crack it, while 130° brine will get it slightly harder. In either case heat it to about two shades of red past non-magnetic, hold there a moment or two then quench it moving it fore and aft in the quench. You will need at least a gallon of quench. A little more would be better.

 

[goon]

Thanks. I used Mapp gas before to anneal a piece of hard steel so I could drill it and it did get it red hot.

Having said that, a gallon of canola oil is probably going to cost me more than I paid for it. It might wind up making more sense to just mail it back to the smith.

 

[Tumblernotch]

You can harden it in used motor oil if you have some available. Brine works fine but not knowing what kind of steel you have there, it's best to use oil. Just remember that it will smoke a lot.

 

[J.D.]

An alternative to canola oil would be to quench in warm water with about 1/2" of oil floating on top.

 

[wayne1967]

Thanks. Learned something new.

 

[LRB]

What JD said would probably work, but motor oil is a very poor oil for quenching. Motor oil thinned well with diesel fuel is better than straight motor oil, but you can bet on a flash up. Were it me, I'd go the brine at 125° to 130°. I just quenched a frizzen half sole of 1095 a few minutes ago with no problems, and it was only about 1/32" thick. But the risk of cracking is always there. If you want to try brine, mix a 26oz box of sea salt, or Kosher salt in two gal of water. I've had good luck with brine, but I only use it with 1095 steel, or Nicholson files.

 

[Tumblernotch]

I prefer brine myself, but have had cracking problems with the cheaper files. I haven't used it on a Nicholson file yet. I have had quite a bit of success in using used motor oil, especially on steels with a high carbon content. Some smiths prefer mineral oil, but after pricing some several years ago I passed when the job I wanted it for required a good bit of it.

 

[LRB]

Thinned motor oil will work with 01, 5160, and maybe a few more, but it is not the best choice. Motor oil will not do a good quench on the 10XX steels. They require a faster cooling oil, or other quenchant for max hardening. Canola oil is about as close as you can get to the recommended commercial oils for these steels. The problem with some steels is in acually knowing if the steel really got as hard as you think it did. A file test will not tell you this, because if you have a mix of hard martensite, and softer pearlite, which is what you get with quenching 1095 steel in motor oil, the file says that the blade is glass hard, when in fact, it is only that hard where it is touching the mastensite. The martensite steel is mixed with the pearlite steel, and the file glides across the martensite and cannot cut the soft pearlite because the hard martensite prevents it from contacting the pearlite. You end with an edge that will not meet it's potential.

 

[J.D.]

What JD said would probably work, but motor oil is a very poor oil for quenching. Motor oil thinned well with diesel fuel is better than straight motor oil, but you can bet on a flash up. Were it me, I'd go the brine at 125° to 130°.

I intended to mention canola oil to float on the water. A quart of canola oil only cost a coupla bucks, at the Dollar Store, BTW.

I started to mention floating the canola on brine, but for some reason, my fat fingers typed water, instead.

IMHO, about 1/4-1/2" of canola floating on a gallon, or so of warm brine, would harden that striker quite well. A light temper, beginning at 300 degrees, F, would probably make sure that striker would throw lots of hot sparks.

Make sure you have a good oven thermometer to regulate the temp, in the kitchen oven, when you temper that striker. IMHO, the thermostats on kitchen ovens are notoriously inaccurate, with some being off as much as 100 degrees, so make sure that at least one good oven thermometer is used in that oven.

God bless

 

[fatboy]

I've used mostly plain water for strikers and most are made for files and 1095 havnt had a cracking problem but I am just lucky maybe . The other quench I use is peanut oil heated to 140 and has worked for me your milage may very

 

[LRB]

I have never had file steel crack in water, but I have 1095 crack longitudinaly with the grain flow. Since I went to brine, no more cracking. I quenched a 1095 frizzen half sole yesterday that was less than 1/32" thick, and even that survived.

 

[goon]

So I tried heating it up with a torch using Mapp gas in a brine solution as described, but all I did was wind up wasting a bunch of gas and salt. It doesn't spark at all now - all I've done is take all the temper out of it.
For now, this is just going to get put in a drawer until the day comes when I'm better able to do something with it.

I mean it cost me $10. At this rate, I'll be wasting enough money trying to make it work that I could just as easily buy a striker that actually works from a smith who knew what he was doing instead.

 

[LRB]

If you bring it up red-orange in dim light then drop it in brine, and it doesn't harden, you got ripped. It may just be thin case hardened. If you don't mind, PM me and tell me who made it.