Brass Rails

[Tom Cole]

Gregory Torres wrote:
> 
> James,
> 
> Is it the butt plates that are breaking or the rail itself? If it is chronic
> you may just have a case where the brass has "crystallized". I don't know if
> this is a legitimate technical term for it but I don't know any other way to
> explain it except that the brass has changed it's molecular structure and has
> weakened.

I have heard that if you anneal brass (heat it to some temperature and
let it cool slowly), this cures the brittleness and heads off future
weakening. This works a lot better if you've first removed all the
hammers and taken the rail out of the action ;-) If the fingers already
have started to break, though, it's repair clip time.
> 
> BTW, maybe someone can explain why stainless steel has not been used in this
> type of application (I haven't seen it used anyways) besides being more costly
> than brass, perhaps??? Del?? any others??

Stainless steel is harder to machine but I can imagine that some kind of
mild steel would work.

-- 
Thomas A. Cole, RPT
Santa Cruz, CA