Pedersoli flintlock .45 Cal Mystery rifle

[Col. Batguano]

Try working on the frizzen yourself. Not hard. Heat the frizzen face to cherry red with a torch and let it air cool slowly. That will make it dead soft. Then, heat it again to cherry red and quench it in oil. Mineral oil not motor oil. That will make it hard, but brittle. Now put it in your oven at 375F degrees for an hour. That will temper it. See how it sparks then.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Interesting. I was always taught to heat the frizzen to a yellow-orange about 1900°, higher than cherry red, then quench it in Canola Oil, OR better, into a proper quenching oil. THEN to temper it by heating to 450° in an oven, and letting it slowly cool, then repeat the temper heating a second time before one is finished. Unless one has a chamber to hold in the heat, I was taught that a basic propane torch doesn't get most frizzens properly hot, so one needs to us MAPP gas torch, perhaps two in combination.

LD

 

[Sharpie44]

I've always wanted to try hardening one myself but I'm afraid i don't have the proper tools. I might pick up a small propane forge eventually and give it a shot. Till then I'll just send it to a blacksmith that knows what they are doing.

 

[rdstrain49]

Not all Blacksmiths deal with heat treating, I think you may be better off finding a Bladesmith. They all heat treat.

 

[RADeO]

If your lockplate measures 4-7/16" long and 15/16" high, I believe you will find it impossible to get a better-quality lock from L&R or Chambers.

I have a Dixie Deluxe Pennsylvania rifle made by Pedersoli (and so marked on the barrel). The date code indicates it was made in 1998. I too was not happy with the performance of my lock, but in regards to flint life. It sparked acceptably but absolutely LOVED to eat flints. After searching several months to find a quality replacement lock I gave up. I had even sent it to a well-known lock maker to see if it could be improved. He pronounced the lock geometry as "c**p". The only replacements available were very overpriced locks from Pedersoli. I believe the same size lock was used on the Dixie Cub rifle.

Perhaps locks of more recent manufacture from Pedersoli are of better quality.

At any rate, I wish you success in your endeavor.

 

[kodiakmarine]

That is a Pedersoli Kentucky Rifle. I once had one of those in percussion. My advice is to convert it to percussion or sell it for what you paid for it with the admonition to convert it to percussion. Fooling around with that inadequate flint lock will only cost you time, money and aggravation. In percussion you can adjust powder, patch and ball combinations until it shoots accurately. Good luck. - John

 

[Sharpie44]

Ya it's too bad because I would love to have a .45 cal flint. I did get a few flints small enugh to work but it's still not a lot of sparks. It's flints are also tiny. I mean like the smallest flints I have ever seen.

I have a feeling I'll sell it to put money towards a fowler.

 

[Tinker2]

I have a Pedersoli flint like yours in .32. Yes they use a small flint, no big deal.
I had to have it work on but now it is as reliable as my other flints.

I would not have a blacksmith or blade smith try to heat treat your frizzen.
It is not that some of them can’t do it but”¦”¦

You should take it to a professional flintlock gunsmith.
Those locks do need work to be their best just like most flintlocks.
Just hardening the frizzen is most likely not going to do it.


William Alexander

 

[Zonie]

To all:

As I've said before, before planning on getting a frizzen re-hardened its a very good idea to find out if it even needs to be hardened.

This is easy to do if one has a metal cutting file of any kind.

Try filing on the face of the frizzen which the flint will strike.

If the file bites into the metal and starts to remove filings, the frizzen needs to be hardened.

If the file doesn't bite into the metal and it just leaves a slightly shiny or polished look or leaves no evidence of its removing metal at all, the frizzen hardness is not the problem.
The problem is with something else like a dull flint or the flint striking the frizzen at the wrong angle.

Truth be known, the sparks are caused by the flint cutting off thin slivers of steel.
This cutting action heats the metal at the point of the cut to well over 2000°F which causes the carbon in the steel to ignite.

This sparking will happen even if the frizzen is dead soft.
If you don't believe me, get a piece of medium or high carbon steel that has not been hardened.
Take it to a grinder and touch the spinning wheel with the steel. A shower of white hot sparks will instantly come flying off of the steel.

The hardening only keeps the flint from digging into the steel too deeply and wearing away the surface too rapidly.

There was a time, many years ago, when the frizzens were made out of a low carbon steel.
The low carbon content caused the steel slivers to fail to ignite so few sparks were created.
To fix this, the low carbon frizzens were case hardened, a process where carbon is introduced into the surface of the soft steel.
The carburized parts were then heat treated to harden the high carbon steel surface layer.

Worn case hardened steel will eventually get its high carbon steel layer worn off and the only way to repair it is to case harden it again or to install a thin piece of thru hardened steel.

All of the flintlock frizzens that I know of that were made recently are made from a alloy steel which hardens completely thru the part.

Because the entire frizzen is hard all the way thru it, the battery on these alloy frizzens do not wear out until the entire part becomes worn thru. (Something that takes thousands of shots).

Keep all of this in mind when someone tells you your frizzen is too soft.