Hardening a frizzen

[RonnieK]

I am in need to having my frizzen hardened. I was told to use a MAPP torch to heat it to cherry red, dump a spoonful on kasenite on it, heat it again, more kasenite, then quinch it. I understand this process, but am wondering if there is a different method of heating the frizzen or hardening it in general, if i cannot get ahold of a MAPP torch. Any help with this problem would be greatly appreciated!

[Red Badger]

mapp gas is the easiest quickest way,  anyway you can heat it will work... just be careful not to get it too hot.  Mapp torch can be found at any Home improvement store in the yellow container fits right onto a propane torch setup

[pathfinder]

Put it in a can chock full of leather and bone,put it in a fire for an hour or so,pull it out,carefully open the can,grab the frizzen by the ear with pliers,and dunk in oil,just the face,not the tail!,let it cool,clean it up,and your done.The bone and leather add's carbon to the piece.

[RonnieK]

Will heating it in the fire get it hot enough or should i add some kasenite to the face after getting it out of the fire and heat that too?

[mongrel]

No, if you go Pathfinder's route the frizzen will be tempered to spark. Re-heating the steel to accept the kasenit will defeat the purpose of heating it in the fire, and also the second heating is liable to leave the steel brittle. I've had two frizzens in the course of the past years that didn't spark to my satisfaction after using kasenit, and after re-heating and applying kasenit a second time they sparked fine but broke into several pieces after very little use.

In my experience, MAPP gas is barely adequate for heat-treating a frizzen. Two MAPP torches will usually get it done, but getting that chunky a piece of steel cherry-red with a single torch is liable to take a good long while or not happen at all.

Badger is right, though, MAPP canisters are sold in just about every hardware store. They're standard plumbing equipment, same as propane. The canisters are yellow and use the same torch fittings as propane.

If MAPP gas doesn't get it, the next step is oxy/acetylene, which not everyone has access to and which requires EXTREME care when heating something the size of a frizzen.

[hrayton]

Not to highjack this thread, but I imagine this coffee can approach would probably work for a firesteel as well? Are we talking an avalanche of sparks here?  It kind of begs to be tried out....

[mongrel]

Since the object of a frizzen is to create as large a shower of sparks as the size of the steel allows for, I would say the method should work extremely well for a fire steel.

Incidentally, I've never seen kasenit instructions that called for two applications of the stuff. The instructions that come with the kasenit bought from Dixie Gun Works specify heating the steel almost white-hot, coating the frizzen body with kasenit, heating nearly white-hot again (semi-liquified kasenit will glow and fall off the steel -- hard on the eyes and not advised in areas where there is any sort of fire hazard), then dunking in water. Things will hiss and pop, violently. The steel will be too hard to cut with a file and generally will produce a very good shower of sparks.

I'm not saying that the way the instructions read is the only right way to use the stuff, and that therefore any method that differs in any way is wrong, but that's how the instructions with the stuff I've bought call for it to be done. I WILL say that to get even a frizzen nearly white-hot almost requires an oxy-acetylene rig -- I've never gotten a frizzen hot enough or had decent sparks result, using even two cans of MAPP gas. I will also say that the use of extreme heat and kasenit is an inexact science (at least for me; I do not claim to be the most skilled at this sort of thing and have given up on buying things like Siler kits or other castings that need heat-treatment, short of dire emergency) and that if you don't get it right the first time you're generally, in my experienced, screwed.

Which is not to advise anyone against trying it, especially if they have a lock with a frizzen that won't throw sparks. Just be aware that getting it right can be a trial-and-error process.