I have this original (to the rifle) frizzen that has plagued me. I could not reharden it at all, have tried many times, even with a newly purchased hardening/carbon infusing compound. So, tonight after browsing Americal Longrifles Forum, I found a statement that basically said "old files spark the greatest" or something like that. I had kept a pile of old Chinese H.F. files that were worn out. So I broke off a piece. With my 6" wide belt sander, ground one face to fit the contours of that horrible frizzen's face. Since the frizzen was already tinned (soft-solder with 3% silver content) This file piece could be sweated to the frizzen. After the sweating, the face was ground to simulate the frizzen curve. It is a bit thicker, but it should outlast me and several more generations to follow.
After sweating, left edge.
The added piece shape was already defined before this stage. When soldering, the solder will use capillary action to try and center the two parts, no need to clamp anything.
The file was not tempered. I had decided to try and keep it as hard as possible.
Other side,edge.
Here is seen the old file face.
Darn thing slid up a bit but it'll still work fine. If I had wired it into place this would not have happened.
Now to surface grind the "file piece".
A bit fuzzy, but the solder joint can be seen.
During surface grinding. The edges have already been trimmed but not finished.
A bit of the old file edge can be seen here along with that solder joint. Yes, the joint is a bit thick but it should hold just fine.
Finished with surface grinding. Nice and smooth, a long ways better than that old hacked up face underneath. Front edges have been slightly rounded to keep from cutting the user.
Installed! This is a monumentous achievement for me. This gives me a spare frizzen, one was bought on ebay and now will be retired. Plus this resoled one sparks nice hot stuff that bounces around. What a relief.
Now I can rest, knowing that this can be done with cheap worn out files from China.
Nov/08/2015
Frizzen worked fine, solder joint held up, no breakage.
Not enough sparks, file resole piece was too hard. Heated the file resole piece to straw color. Tried it, more sparks, much better.
Nov/14/2015
Changed out the file piece for another piece. File handle stamped (Eagle) CNCO.
Works better than Nov/08 piece. Hardened and drawn back before attaching.
Sept/01/2016
None of the above lasts very long.
Finally riveted a piece of old saw blade to that frizzen. Tempered the piece and it works much better. Will be kept as a "backup" frizzen.
IdeZilla
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