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willyboy
10-20-2009, 02:59 AM
well, my Dixie Tower Pistol doesn't want to spark.It could be the frizzen isn't sufficiently hardened.With a selection of flints from the parts box [my brother's I haven't had a flinch lock in years] we got this thing to off a grand total of...once.I could see that there was only one or two sparks.Not exactly the shower of sparks I was hopeing for.At first, I thought it might be the flint,but we tried the flint in my brother's Harper's Ferry,and it sparked ok....?

northmn
10-20-2009, 06:30 AM
If you can file the frizzen it is not hard enough. There have been formulas for hardening frizzens in other threads. Can be done in a wood fire easily. Also there are things like mainspring strength, frizzen spring resistance and general balance of the lock. Weak mushy mainsprings do not spark. Flints need to be sharpened. Some use the new diamond knife sharpners to do so as it makes them last much longer than knapping, others knap. Good luck

Northmn

waksupi
10-20-2009, 11:03 AM
Sounds like a soft frizzen. A treatment of Kasenit will take care of it.

StarMetal
10-20-2009, 11:23 AM
well, my Dixie Tower Pistol doesn't want to spark.It could be the frizzen isn't sufficiently hardened.With a selection of flints from the parts box [my brother's I haven't had a flinch lock in years] we got this thing to off a grand total of...once.I could see that there was only one or two sparks.Not exactly the shower of sparks I was hopeing for.At first, I thought it might be the flint,but we tried the flint in my brother's Harper's Ferry,and it sparked ok....?

I got a chuckle out of you calling them flinch locks. Yup, sounds like the old soft frizzen problem.

Joe

willyboy
10-20-2009, 11:42 AM
Thanks guys.The same flints that produce a shower of sparks in my brothers 1803 make about three lazy sparks from my ''new'' pistola.Time to reharden the frizzen,I'm afraid.

Ricochet
10-20-2009, 11:46 AM
Turner Kirkland had a story in the old Dixie catalogs about hardening these things by wrapping them in old leather, putting it in a can, crimping that shut, heating it red hot in a campfire and dropping it in cold water. (That can also be done by packing clay around the leather.) Said one time they left it too long and the case hardening "met in the middle." The frizzen snapped in two, but made a huge shower of sparks.

willyboy
10-20-2009, 12:25 PM
I just watched a video on that!I'm considering fireing up the ol' barbeque...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKKhIOx707M

405
10-20-2009, 07:06 PM
Many ways to do it and some ways to do it too much or wrong :) The simplest, most foolproof, as has been suggested, is Kasenit. A can goes a long way! If you do any metal tinkering, gun parts work, etc. it always comes in handy.

stubshaft
10-20-2009, 08:24 PM
Go to the local NAPA store and get an empty pint size paint can with lid. Stop by either the Thrift store and get an old boot or the Garden shop and buy bone meal fertilizer. Pack frizzen in either leather or bone meal and throw it in the fire and cook it. The tricky part is guessing when the part is hot enough to quench. You can use trial and error by timing how long you leave it in the fire.

willyboy
11-14-2009, 03:54 AM
the Kasenit worked wonders!

northmn
11-14-2009, 08:57 AM
The Kasenit is also a thin layer of hard metal and will need to be redone again. Another option some used is to "face" the frizzen with a peice of spring steel or other hardenable metal about 1/16" thick and rivet it on. One dealer used to sell a frizzen facing that sparked liek a demon but was taken off the market becasue it was slightly radioactive. He made his own line of locks and needed it as his flintlocks did not spark worth sour owl droppings.

Northmn