Prof Marvel, you are a Gentleman and a scholar (as are so many here .....even Thumper "The Blacksmith" in his own way) and I thanks ya kindly fer the reminder about the MAPP tourch.
"The bolt in a Colt" is a spring and heat can mess it up. I'd have to keep the heat from traveling too far into the body under the bolt head. Brownells sells that "Heat Sink" stuff that supposedly stops heat from traveling. I guess I could clamp some thick flat steel bars to each side of the body below the bolt head.
I wonder if that much heat had to be used if I'd end up heatin to black cherry the bolt and quenching it and then re-tempering it to get back to "springy".
Maybe braise with brass on the bolt head. Wonder if that would be too hard and still "peck" the cylinder?
I guess I could delve into this "softer than steel bolt head cap" and see where it would lead. Ifin it was a viable solution to the "pecked by the bolt soft steel cylinder" that is prevelent with the "cap&ballers" and even some cartridge guns it would be helpful to gunsmiths and cap&ball shooters. The soft steel cylinders the cap&ballers have is a bain to "The Kitchen Table Gunsmith" and ,I imagine, even the Pro and Pre-fessionals.
I mean.....what is a gun-fixer ,of any grade, supposed to do with a steel cylinder on a revolver that seems like it's made from "leadloy steel alloy?
I've wondered for years if it's possible or "a good idea" to harden and temper a cylinder on a cap&baller revolver?
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I imagine they aren't hardened or tempered at all really.
There used to be a company that did hardening of steel that advertised a service to harden all the major parts of a cap&baller revolver. Of course they supposedly knew what they were doing. Without knowing what steel is used in a cap&baller cylinder or barrel I don't know where they would approach the proceedure.
I've thought of "Kasinet" hardening a cylinder and then re-tempering it so the surface could be hardened by the carbon.
I know one thing.....considering this overly soft steel cylinder problem.....someone making new ordanance grade steel cylinders for cap&ballers could be profitable ifin someone set up to do it fast and economical so people could afford them. Like the CNC type jobber.
Wonder what W.Kirst and Ravens Roost Gun Shop would thunk of that idea?
One standard thing I do right off the bat after takin a Pietta cap&baller out of the box is to take it apart...shorten the bolt leg to get the bolt from hitting right on the edge of the cylinder notch and loosening the bolt spring screw a half turn. That stops the cylinder damage that starts with the very first pulls of the hammers on those guns.
A new gun.....play with the action a few times....look at the gun.....see heart breaking peens to the cylinder notches. The rougher they get the rougher the action works from the bolt moving over it's own damqge.
O course I can't fergit to add the other thing that needs done with those guns .......is to get the bolt leg closer to the hammers cam so the bolt can get ahead some in the timing and not be in the cylinder notch when the hand gets to turning the cylinder. The bolt making another ramp on the wrong side of the cylinder notch from broaching it's way clear while hanging the action up ( sometimes actually stopping the action from working) is not an attractive modification at all.
At least the Remingtons can be made(if they aren't comin out of the box that way) to not have the bolt "snap into the cylinder" but return to contact with the cylinder gently and controled with out the snap by mechanically always being controlled by the hammers cam. I thunk that's how the Remingtons should work. It's a nice feature. You don't have or hear the snap of the bolt hitting back in contact with the cylinder but....you don't have peckin peens all over the cylinder either.
The Colts hammer cam doesn't control the bolt since the bolt leaves contact with the hammer cam as the bolt leg goes down. The Remington bolt leg is in contact with the hammer cam on the way up and on the way down.