No Spark?

[kary krahel]

A Friend picked up a used 1803 Harpers Ferry .54 last weekend. Well the fun was over after the second shot. No more spark! We worked on the flint, tried several new flints, even tried flints that were sparking in other guns. A good flint will give only a weak spark every 10 trys or so. This gun was made by Euro Arms? We think that it may be a problem with the frizzen? The surface looks well worn, I would say even "gauld-up". I would be glad to hear from anyone with this same gun or anyone with any idea's.
Thank's
Clarence.

 

[Black Hand]

The frizzen on these guns seem to be the problem. Maybe they are Case-Hardened....?

 

[tom hargrove]

you need to re-harden the frizzen would be my guess.

 

[ApprenticeBuilder]

First thing I would do is try an run a file across the face of the frizzen and see if the case hardening has been worn thru, if so I would just re-harden the frizzen. :hmm:

Others will surely chime in and you will probably get more/better answers.

 

[kary krahel]

Thanks for the quick response fella's! I was thinkin that the frizzen might be the problem.
Any "Ideals" on how to re-harden the frizzen?

Clarence

 

[boar]

If you can get the Foxfire book,I think 5or6 it shows how Hershal House resoled one with a piece of file,riveted it on the frizzen. Now he had tempered the piece of file. Dilly

 

[longfowler]

that's what it sounds like to me...if you can scratch the frizzen at all, it's worn down past the case hardening. I've even seen some scraped down paper thin, they had to be recovered with a piece of old file to spark again.

 

[George Holton]

:thumbsup: You can do it! first a piece of banding iron from a pallett, cut out a piece to fit your frizzen face, bend it to fit, and then case harden it with casenit. then epoxy it on the frizzen . It aint those two letters but it works. Bob

 

[Scota4570]

The frizzen is soft. They probably cyanide cased it.

Buy some Kasenite. Follow the directions on the can.

 

Thanks for the quick response fella's! I was thinkin that the frizzen might be the problem.
Any "Ideals" on how to re-harden the frizzen?

Clarence

Easy as fallin' off a log backwards. First, freshen up the frizzen face on a 6" wheel. Don't grind too much off, just smooth it up. Then, take a propane torch and mount it in a vice flame pointing straight up. Hold the frizzen in a pair of vice grips by the pivot and hold it over the flame with the frizzen face faceing up and the flame on the back of the face. Bring it up to bright red and, with a spoon, pile some kasenit on the face. It will turn black and bubble. let it cook like that for 5 or 10 minutes, then scrape it off and pile on some new kasenit. Let that cook for 10 minutes or so then quench in room temp water that has 1/8" or so of ATF on top. Now the face should be glass hard. You want to temper it to 375-400 degrees. To do that, put the frizzen in a soup can filled with sand (I use sand blasting sand) and put in the oven set at 350 degrees. Check the sand temp with a candy thermometer or any probe type thermometer that covers from 300 to 450 range. When the sand temp stablizes you'll know the actual oven temp. The dial will not likely be accurate. Then adjust to get the actuall temp in the 375-400 range hold for 1 hour then turn the oven off and the next day, dump out the sand and you have a frizzen. The sand is nothing more than a medium from which an acurate temp can be gleaned.

 

[Wes/Tex]

The Model 1803 has been a source of problems for years. The initial problem is that the lock style is a "basher" type that has developed into an even bigger problem with reproduction. The parts were cast from original lock parts but always shrink in the casting problem. Then they decided to make exterior changes that prevent the better parts available from being used as replacement. Add to this the parts are improperly hardened and you're in a mess. Track had a place on their site where one of the local gunsmiths managed to replace the interior parts with Siler lock parts but this was a bit of a project since holes in the lock plate had to be filled and new screw holes drilled. Even with this work you still have a lock that has rain gutters that didn't appear on the original.

Even trying to polish parts runs into the problem of easily going through the thin hardening layer. You can try hardening the frizzen to help but this doesn't address the other problems involved. I wish you luck with this enterprise.

 

[DRC]

I had a russ hamm lock that woundn't spark good. Kasenit worked very good for me. :thumbsup:

 

[J.D.]

Will a Davis Harpers Ferry lock fit that mortise?
[url] http://www.redaviscompany.com/1018.html[/url]