On Friday 11 December 2015 13:06:12 andy pugh wrote: > On 11 December 2015 at 17:30, Gene Heskett <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Sounds like you don't have a lot to lose by attempting to > >> heat-treat the blade. > > > > I've considered that, but I think I'd have to do something similar > > to color case hardening just to add some carbon, > > As a first stage, just get it red hot and quench it in oil. If it gets > hard, then it is an OK steel with a bad heat-treat. > If it doesn't, then put the plane back on the shelf.
Or get another blade. My experience with un-hardened A2 has been surprisingly good. I have a bar of it, 6mm wide, .125" thick, about 2.25" long, drilled & tapped in the nominal center for a pair of 0-80 screws that hold the cocking handle to it. This bar, over its full length, takes a whack that is in the 2000 lb range everytime I pull the trigger on that 50 cal BP rifle. Its reason for being is that it is locking the new bolt, closed with very little slack, against the slap rearward by the #209 magnum primer, and, using the diameter of the primer at nominally .241" as a piston being driven rearward by the peak chamber pressure of a load on BlackHorn-209 black powder workalike, which I'm told is in the 22k psi range for that powder. The OEM bolt was also the fireing pin as it had small nubbin bump in the center of its face, and was entirely controlled by the inertia and a stout spring, which allowed it to back away far enough to drop the primer crossways in the action, plus enough hot gas was expelled to both burn the crosshairs out of the scope, and also blew that hat off the guy at the next bench. So I fixed it by making a whole new bolt and firing pin that locks closed until I pull on the cocking handle to depress the rear of that A2 latch bar, which was engaging the rear of the factory cut handle slot to lock it closed, so it will cock, which then gives me room to remove the spent primer, reload it (its still a muzzleloader,) and put a new primer in it for the next shot. Its in a thumbhole stock I made, and actually quite easy to shoot, lots easier on my shoulder and more fun than another very similar BP rifle I bought new for 3x as much money. Biggest damper to the fun is the cost of the expendables, nearly $1.75 a shot. Anybody who claims a front stuffer is cheap to shoot, is using a flintlock, casting his own ball from donated wheelweights, and cutting his own patches & may even be making his own powder from the floor of a chicken run. That can be done. Cheers, Gene Heskett -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) Some mill pix are at: Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene/GO704-pix> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
