whats the best/simplestway to harden a frizzen

[brushbuster]

whats the best or simplest way to harden a frizzen or knife stock from soft metal ? i am getting some small grooves in my .50 cal and want to make a patch knife out of some 1/4" plate i have lying around.i have heard of useing casenite(?)but don.t know where to get it.

 

[musketman]

In dim light, heat evenly to a red-orange and plunge into warm motor oil or transmission fluid, which is a little better. If it does not harden,repeat, but use warm water. Wick Ellerbe

You can use the above method to harden just the striking surface...

Traditional Case Hardening is done by packing the soft iron or steel parts in a cast iron box (old dutch oven with lid), together with a mixture of charred bone meal, leather scraps or parings from hooves etc. The top is wired in place and sealed with fireclay...

The entire box is then heated in forge or furnace, to a medium red heat for several hours, after which it is removed, the wires clipped and the entire contents dumped into clear cold water...

However, this method will harden the whole frizzen, not just the striking surface...

 

[Redleg130th]

http://trackofthewolf.com/categories/par...partNum=KASENIT

Track of the Wolf has Kasenit.

 

[tg]

Be garefull not to make the frizzen to hard, the steel must be soft enough for the flint to scrape off sparks(hot pieces of the steel)which will result in some scratches or grooves on the metal.

 

[Birddog6]

The small grooves in the frizzen are normal, shift the flint a little bit about every 20 shots & it will change the tracking thus eliminate the grooves & also wear the frizzen face more evenly. If it sparks good now LEAVE IT ALONE .... It is supposed to have grooves & waves & dents, it is a frizzen & it is supposed to wear. If it is hard enough that it don't wear, you will be changing broken or dull flints about every 3rd shot... I have a Lyman GPR that has over 5000 shots thru it, same frizzen, it looks like H but it still works fine & shoots fine...

IMHO, don't waste your time on the mild scrap steel as it makes lousy skinning knives & lousy patch knives. Most think because it is just for cutting patches it doesn't have to be good, when in fact cutting cloth material requires very good steel that will hold an edge, unless ya want to sharpen it about every 5th shot. When I go to shoot, I wanna ahoot, not sharpen a knive every 15 min. It is aggravating as H to be shootin & can't cut a patch after about the 5th-6th shot...
I suggest buying a blade or you can buy a piece of 01 steel that you an harden easily with a torch & some oil & this will work much better than the scrap steel & make a knife worthy of the time you invested in it.....
I have seen thousands of beautiful knives made that were absolutely useless because the guy didn't want to spend $5-10 for a good piece of steel.... what a waste of time that could have easily been a worthy investment...

My feeling is , if you are goint to make it, start off right, use the Correct materials & don't be afraid to spend $10-15., and you have a 50% head start on most other people trying to do it right from the start....

You can get good steel for this at Texas knife Supply or Koval Knives and they have an online catalog. Make sure you get oil or air hardening as the D2,ATS-34,& 440 have to be professionally hardened in a heat treating oven & not what one would have at home.

Good luck.

 

[brushbuster]

You can get good steel for this at Texas knife Supply or Koval Knives and they have an online catalog. Make sure you get oil or air hardening as the D2,ATS-34,& 440 have to be professionally hardened in a heat treating oven & not what one would have at home.

Good luck.

can you give me a little more detail and possibly a web address? ::

 

[Birddog6]

www.texasknife.com

www.kovalknives.com

Texas Knives (TK) also has books on knife making & if you have never made any knives this could prove a worthy investment. I have never used any of them as I started making knives back in the 60's & learned by trial/error. So I can't really recommend any of the books, however I am sure the guys at Texas Knives can recommend a good beginners book. They are nice people to deal with at TK & I have bought hundreds of pieces of steel & knife making supplies from them for years, they have never disappointed me with the quality of their products. I don't use Koval very much as they usually are a tad higher priced for the same things & TK usually has the supplies I need & I have an open account with them, thus I deal with TK most of the time.

Now some guy make knives using scrap saw blades & this & that, & that is fine if that is what you want to do. There are lots of misc. steels out there that can be salvaged for this, however, what you may end up is sometimes questionable.... I don't mess with that as if I am going to invest my time & effort in a knife it is going to be the best steel & New steel, not something out of the scrap & later on wonder if it will hold up & I have never had a complaint from a customer on a knife in over 30 years....

Good Luck ! :thumbsup:

 

[BLAHMAN]

If you ever need to reharden the frizzen, don't forget to temper it back down a tad, if you don't it may break. This is in reference to the oil quenching method. If you want to make a knife, find an old worthless file, heat it up and shove it in a can of cat litter. Keep doing this until it softens up (it will be able to be cut with a hacksaw or better file at this point). You can then cut, shape and file a blade to your liking.

 

[brushbuster]

thanks for the advice bird dog ,illcheck out those links this evening ,also just movin the flint a little saved me a lot of aggrevation yesterday when my gun failed to spark on the fire ing line .i just twisted it a little and was able to fire the gun.then a quick knapp back at the loading benchwith the brass part of my ball starter ,i was able to keep up with the rest of the perc.shooters.

 

[fatboy]

If you check your yellow pages in your are you should find a metal dealer ask them if they have any 1095 steel tell them what you are making and i am sure they can help you out