Nestled deep in the box ‘o lowwall parts Jake and I scored 2 years ago at Tulsa was a complete pistol grip DST lower tang for a Winchester single shot. I have no idea who may have built it but it has the look of quality throughout.
It won’t quite slip in any of the 3 bare lowwall receivers I have but that’s an easy enough fix with skim cuts on the milling machine.
The larger issue is that none of the internal parts or the tang itself have been hardened except the springs.
Who would you recommend for quality heat treatment of this assembly of parts?

curdog wrote on Nov 5^th, 2026 at 8:17pm:

Having done quite a bit of heat treating of known alloys, that was foremost in my thoughts. 
Case hardening solves that by adding carbon to softer base metals and creating the hard outer skin. 
You have to wonder what the original manufacturers used in the mid to late 1800s, as the current crop of wonder alloys simply didn’t exist.
I like to think if someone took the effort to carve out the triggers they would have started with good stock. Obviously the tang itself isn’t as critical in this assembly.

Curdog,

That’s why you correctly anneal after case hardening……..


Tom Klinger

frnkeore wrote on Nov 6^th, 2026 at 12:32pm:

Good idea, thanks. 
I could do a test with the lowest part of the trigger itself while holding the thinner upper portion.

Ok, call it drawing back to a less brittle state.
A heating to a certain temperature and slow cooling process.

Tom Klinger