Quote:
Originally Posted by lugerholsterrepair
(bending, etc) the right angled trigger lever
I have been interested in heat treatment of various metals ever since I went to gunsmithing school many decades ago..It's something you better know about or have a lot of experience with before you try it at home!
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Yes, it probably requires a certain amount of knowledge of how the different alloys will behave when treated. But all this is stuff that can be found in pertinent reference books--or, as I did, by asking the Knowledgeable! It will be involved in creating the small run of extractors for the Erma KGP86 that I'm on the path toward. When one knows the alloy and target hardness, it will be simple enough to apply even heat to the parts to achieve the required temp for the intended result. If the required temperature and its accuracy are within the capabilities of the home setup--in this case, a toaster oven and a box of sand or salt--I say go for it! I think many of us are competent enough to reproduce 100+ -year-old technology right in the home shop!
I've always found it interesting that quenching a red hot piece of copper or brass will make it
softer/more malleable, contrasted with ferrous stuff which always winds up a bit harder under this treatment. Something ferrous, when heated to red and quenched in either water or oil, will result in a part that's dead hard within its range, but brittle as glass. Re-heating to a lesser temp and quenching after this is accomplished draws off varying degrees of that hardness, trading it for toughness, with dead soft at the other end of the spectrum.