Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Grade of steel for making a replacement shotgun extractor?

I've got a 410 with a broken extractor; my Dad made a new part out of cold rolled steel on his milling machine, but it turned out to be a bit soft. What grade of steel should we be using for the next one? Or can we use cold rolled steel and some kind of quench for hardening?

try Brownells they sell fatigue proof steel stock that makes great firing pins- sounds like what you would need for an extractor

Hey Oregon45, I'd try Numrich gun parts. They sell just about every part you need for most guns. I just bought some things from them and live in your area, the shipment took 2 days to get to my house. They are very good to do business with. I'm asuming the extractor is heat treated or hardened steel of some type. At the least I think I'd use a higher carbon steel like 1095 from something like an old planer blade or old saw blade then re-heat treat it. Look in a machinery's handbook and it will probably tell you the answer you need. Chief

you can harden 1018 cr to brittle. I would try oil queching and then draw it back to about 500 f. if you water quench it will be too brittle.

1018 steel is impossible to harden using heat. It can be work hardened or carburized to make the surface hard. There must be at least 0.3% carbon for any deep hardening to take place and 1018 contains approx. 0.18%.

RAN

You could use cold rolled and use a compound called Kasnit. This is a case hardening compound.

The part would definately be stronger, but as to whether case hardening would be good enough, I can't say.

There was a thread on here a few weeks ago about case hardening. I don't know how to search, but you might try that.

I know this much, I have a few punches I spun out of cd1018 and they are absolutely hard now. heated and water quenched. perhaps I carburize when I heated....I do not recall, been a while.

Check the references, AISI 1018 is universally considered non-hardenable because of the low carbon content (0.18% nominally). Maybe you unknowingly got a chunk of medium or high carbon steel? I've never noticed appreciable hardening with mild steel.

For an extractor I'd probably use O-1 tool steel (about 0.95% carbon)just because that is what I have on hand. Plain carbon steels are easier to heat treat properly with a flame. I'd bet 4140 would work if that's what you have handy, or maybe 4130.

Nighthawk is spot on and I'd either check Numerich(Gunparts Inc.) or make one from 4140 or 0-1.