1900 AE Heavy Wear Marks?

[ithacaartist]

Originally Posted by postino

It's different because that knob has the 'toggle lock' in it, and there is a milled bevel on the bottom of the knob where it hits that ramp.

Yup that's the story, the wear pattern makes sense now. I'm not sure, since I've never seen a 1900 in person, that I've ever seen one's toggle train from this angle, much less noticed this aspect to the wear patterns this design configuration results in.

This leaves us, still, with the caveat to change over to fresh springs. Very graphic, and sometimes heartbreaking, evidence of what happens when the action is forcefully over-extended...

Originally Posted by skeeter4206

Is it common for the firing pin retainer to hit the back of the frame. Looking at your above pictures it looks like mine and yours has the same looking mark where it hits the frame. Is this a major problem?]

Yes, but likely cumulative. It takes repeated forceful blows to work harden a piece of steel, but the more forceful and frequent the trauma, the faster metal fatigue will develop if it continues--to the point of becoming so hard and brittle that crystallization occurs and one last whack causes it to shatter and fail. Check out the texture of the break on the spring guide above; it's not torn, but shattered/snapped. I'm not knowledgeable of how to assess the damage/progression if it is noticed before failure of a part. I consider a crack a failure, and a break a catastrophic failure, even though both are catastrophic, as far as collectors are concerned. I think up to a certain point, further service will be OK, but after that point, continued use would be dangerous to the part, and perhaps to the user. But I don't know how that could be established. Maybe X-ray?