Re-facing flintlock pistol frizzen

[Pablo232]

Last week a friend brought me a flintlock pistol by an unknown Spanish maker. it had a somewhat ornamental frizzen. The face was in bad shape, badly worn, scored and rutted. It barely sparked at all. He wanted to see if I could harden it.

I was reluctant to try hardening it as I was afraid it might crack, and i probably could not find a replacement.

Instead, I dug out an old piece of clock spring that I bought online for a project long ago and cut off a piece long enough to to cover the frizzen face. Using JB weld I glued the spring to the frizzen face using lock pliers to clamp the ends so that the spring conformed to the frizzen face. I let it set for 48 hours then used my Dremel to take off excess material at the edges and conform to the shape of the frizzen.

Now it throws lovely sparks and if it ever needs to be re-done, heat will loosen the JB weld, while the pan ignition does not have any effect on it.

A cheap easy and effective fix.

 

[Larry (Omaha)]

Last week a friend brought me a flintlock pistol by an unknown Spanish maker. it had a somewhat ornamental frizzen. The face was in bad shape, badly worn, scored and rutted. It barely sparked at all. He wanted to see if I could harden it.

I was reluctant to try hardening it as I was afraid it might crack, and i probably could not find a replacement.

Instead, I dug out an old piece of clock spring that I bought online for a project long ago and cut off a piece long enough to to cover the frizzen face. Using JB weld I glued the spring to the frizzen face using lock pliers to clamp the ends so that the spring conformed to the frizzen face. I let it set for 48 hours then used my Dremel to take off excess material at the edges and conform to the shape of the frizzen.

Now it throws lovely sparks and if it ever needs to be re-done, heat will loosen the JB weld, while the pan ignition does not have any effect on it.

A cheap easy and effective fix.

Sounds good! Thanks for your post. Why did you use JB instead of a low temp solder?
Larry

 

[Rawhide67]

I may be doing something similar in the near future. Wasn’t sure how to go about it as I’ve never silver soldered anything before. Will JB weld stand up to repeated strikes.

 

[rafterob]

Had a frizzen resoled a few years back. The gunsmith used a piece of bandsaw blade, riveted and soldered in place. Sparks like crazy.

 

[Nobade]

I have been pondering this. If I solder a new face onto a frizzen, I'm getting it hot enough to anneal it. If I heat it up enough to quench harden it, the solder will melt. So what is the correct technique?

 

[Canute Rex]

Carbon steel won't anneal until you get it up to critical temperature, which is roughly 1425 F. That's dull cherry red. If you use a low temperature solder that melts at 400-600F and heat the piece from the other side of the frizzen you can make it stick without annealing.

 

[Rifleman1776]

You were wise not messing with that El Cheapo lock. What you did was good. Wide bandsaw blades work well also. Although, you might have to grind down the frizzen face to maintain good geometry when the new metal is installed on it.