I need to loosen lock/frizzen springs

[TheTyler7011]

Hey all, I have an Indian made Bess. Say what you will about Indian repros, but overall I like it. One thing that is often the problem is the springs are way too strong. That is the case with mine. The geometry is very good. It’s just these springs are so incredibly tight.

My question is how do I weaken them? What tools do I need? Also, I read on here that the lock force should be 10 lbs and frizzen should be 3 lbs. What tool is used to measure that?

Is the best bet to polish?

 

[Britsmoothy]

Narrow their width some.
Most repros today have too strong a spring set, especially frizzen springing.

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
Grind the springs thinner and with a bigger bevel. Have a container of water handy to cool them as they heat up during grinding. For the frizzen spring, first make sure the toe of the frizzen is square to the surface of the spring and not touching it at an angle. If it is, grind the toe square to the spring. Highly polish the top leaf of the frizzen spring. You can use a simple hand held luggage scale to measure the forces.

dave

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Grind the springs thinner and with a bigger bevel. Have a container of water handy to cool them as they heat up during grinding. For the frizzen spring, first make sure the toe of the frizzen is square to the surface of the spring and not touching it at an angle. If it is, grind the toe square to the spring. Highly polish the top leaf of the frizzen spring. You can use a simple hand held luggage scale to measure the forces.

Absolutely,

BUT Before you slap that India-origin spring to the electric powered stone, ….,
I have found a few tweaks to India-origin locks..., and in some cases other locks. Frequently I have found, especially on repro military locks, that the spring isn't "too strong", but that the "toe" or the "cam" on the frizzen is simply in need of a good polishing. I take a fine sharpening stone or two, different grits, and merely polish the surface of the frizzen toe, finishing with some emory paper and oil. I get the toe nice and shiney, and I also do the same to the surface of the frizzen spring where it contacts the toe.


Now particularly for India-origin frizzens, since these may be partially finished by hand..., the toe can be too long. So there is a great deal more compression, more downward movement on the frizzen spring, than is needed for the frizzen to properly function. In that case I carefully reduce the toe, using a hand cranked sharpening wheel. One MUST be very careful when reducing the toe for if you do it too much, it's very difficult on an India-origin lock to get a replacement and rather expensive to replace a Pedersoli frizzen or Miroku frizzen. In either instance it's not a spring problem....


LD

 

[TheTyler7011]

Absolutely,

BUT Before you slap that India-origin spring to the electric powered stone, ….,
I have found a few tweaks to India-origin locks..., and in some cases other locks. Frequently I have found, especially on repro military locks, that the spring isn't "too strong", but that the "toe" or the "cam" on the frizzen is simply in need of a good polishing. I take a fine sharpening stone or two, different grits, and merely polish the surface of the frizzen toe, finishing with some emory paper and oil. I get the toe nice and shiney, and I also do the same to the surface of the frizzen spring where it contacts the toe.
View attachment 22047

Now particularly for India-origin frizzens, since these may be partially finished by hand..., the toe can be too long. So there is a great deal more compression, more downward movement on the frizzen spring, than is needed for the frizzen to properly function. In that case I carefully reduce the toe, using a hand cranked sharpening wheel. One MUST be very careful when reducing the toe for if you do it too much, it's very difficult on an India-origin lock to get a replacement and rather expensive to replace a Pedersoli frizzen or Miroku frizzen. In either instance it's not a spring problem....
View attachment 22048

LD

Wouldn’t the lock tension also need to be addressed? Or is the frizzen the important part. Because my mainspring is also quite strong. I guess it all applies the same. Reduce width and polish.
Thx

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Wouldn’t the lock tension also need to be addressed? Or is the frizzen the important part. Because my mainspring is also quite strong. I guess it all applies the same. Reduce width and polish.
Thx

It can be.... what I'm trying to get across is that you do the stuff that can't hurt, and often solves the problem using hand tools, Before you risk the stuff that can FUBAR up your lock. Once you lighten a spring it's light. Now an American made spring where you can probably predict the steel that they used, a spring maker could redo that, but the way we are it's more than likely that you'd simply buy a replacement, or a replacement blank and go from there. BUT the India origin locks use hand made springs, so "replacements" don't simply drop in and we don't know what steel them boys is a usin'.

LD