So I bought off fleaBay years ago a dozen '96 mauser firing pins for 25 bucks and all of them were broken. Some not so bad and others that the distal striking end were snakes and had to be cut off and drilled to fix a new pin/shank in the end past the stop. So I got some W-1 and re-maned the whole of it past this safety stop by profiling the pin end with a grinder (hand held die grinder/w stone). Then, I silver brazed that into the socket. Came out really well, I think. Now my question is how do I heat treat them? The material from MSC is annealed - dead soft. I'm pretty sure the brazing process did something as they were air cooled? Everything I read gives me no clue about dealing with a 5/64" pin diameter heat treatment. I'm tempted to get it to red heat, quench in water, and than in molten lead as for a spring? Just let it ride?

Here's my uninformed guess. The silver brazing process gets into red heat so it's possible the pins are now too hard .. check the very tip with a file. you may need to do some tempering. If they are not hard, then you are going to need to harden the tips without melting your solder. Just heat the very tip to red heat, dunk in water, then temper at around 600 (purple-blue color). The shaft does not need to be hardened, just the skinny tip.

Using W1 won't harden unless you quench it, so brazing didn't make them hard.
Leave them alone.

I have a complete 1900 model C Gustav action.. has been in a fire, but parts is parts! You can have it for postage if you want to fool around with it.

DO NOT get them "red hot" and quench with water, as they will crack. I would recommend any kind of oil you may have on hand for a quenching fluid.

So I did a test with some 5/64" W-1 I got at the same time to use for short pins by just heating to full red and let cool in the air. Turns out that that was perfect. That small of a diameter, being dead soft annealed, can be easily bent with the fingers. After, pliers are needed and the pin snaps at around 45* when held in a vise. Can be filed but tough enough done thus. Nice material for the job, a little cheaper than O-1.

W1 is a water quench steel, that’s what the W stands for. I know larger sections of W2 (eg thick knives) can crack if water quenched, a light oil is safer. But on that sort of section water should be fine for w1 and would get it harder. Heat to non magnetic, quench IMMEDIATELY - if it cools below critical before quench it won’t properly harden, and the tip will air cool very fast. Use an oxy just above the quench bath, heat it quick you shouldn’t soften the braze. Should be about 68 Rockwell C and brittle as. Temper to 300*F for 65, 500*F for 59, 700 for 51. Loom up temp/colours of that’s your method. Not sure your target Rockwell, but I guess late 50s would be good. Just do the

brno, thanks I'm pretty happy with what it is as I did it. I believe all parts from that time were case hardened and I've snapped a couple of pins from the 1900's trying to straighten them without heat, even just slightly bent.

I'm new to this and in my continuing education, I think I should have chosen A-6 steel. Nonetheless, air hardening W-1 certainly does 'something' to it.

quote:

Originally posted by copperlake:
brno, thanks I'm pretty happy with what it is as I did it. I believe all parts from that time were case hardened and I've snapped a couple of pins from the 1900's trying to straighten them without heat, even just slightly bent.

I'm new to this and in my continuing education, I think I should have chosen A-6 steel. Nonetheless, air hardening W-1 certainly does 'something' to it.

yeah what you did sounds like it worked well. The air cooling would have been more gentle so a softer result but in this case that worked for you. Small sections are more forgiving too. A6 may be better in theory but if that W1 works then all good.

If you want to know material hardness without a hardness tester then a set hardness files is a useful indicator