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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    Gippsland Victoria
    Posts
    733

    Default France 1785 : Hardening Pistol Parts

    From The book called "Exactly" by Simon Winchester, 2018, ISBN 9780008241773, in a section discussing standardising pistol parts in France in 1785 so that spare parts were readily available and interchangable, initially done to be of benefit to French army.

    page 90 ........... Blanc made all the necessary tools to help in his efforts - according to one source, hardening the metal pieces by burying them for weeks in the copious leavings of manure from the castle stables.

    I've not seen that method of hardening described before, google doesn't yield may hits, wouldn't it take an awful long time for the carbon to be absorbed by the metal parts by that method ?

    I've always wanted to learn the details regarding how accurate screw threads were first made but the book has failed to deliver on that subject.

    Bill
    Last edited by steamingbill; 21st Sep 2019 at 01:26 PM. Reason: added note re army

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Melbourne
    Posts
    102

    Default

    Sounds like a load of Bull S.... to me,
    O come on someone was going to say it lol.

    Cheers Matt.
    I have know idea if this would work or not !

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Adelaide
    Posts
    574

    Default

    All Bull S... aside I seriously think this would not work, back in the 18th century methods and procudures were kept secret so perhaps the manure was just made up to keep outsiders off the scent - no pun intended.

    If you want to know how accurate screw threads were first made get hold of a book called Tools For The Job by L T C Rolt it is a short history of machine tools - here is a link to a copy in the internet archive https://archive.org/details/ToolsForTheJob.

    I read/heard the old way to harden pistol parts was to wrap them in old leather, throw them into a fire and retrieve them in the morning when the fire had gone out, sounds like it might be feasible but I don't if this works.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2015
    Location
    melbourne
    Posts
    473

    Default Case hardening

    There are certainly secret blacksmith ways to (case) harden steel using leather. The item is placed in a sealed tin with some carbon based materials, eg, leather, bone, etc, then heated and held at Red heat for a while.
    The steel absorbs some carbon, which makes it susceptible to harden/tempering

    There are also some case hardening powders which provide a source of carbon, simply plunge the red hot item into the powder.

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