Hotater and all:
i hope i didnt lead anyone to believe this is a particularly easy thing to do,, from just reading the post... only that it can be done.
not knowing the metallurgy of the part, and the small nature of a valve cap make for a little bit of a hassle to get right.
having spent some considerable time, behind a coal fired forge, and anvil, i learned how the processes are done,, but as Hotater has posted there are numerous and better ways of doing it.
i am left to consider though the following
the book i have has the directions and illustrations of a manufacture hardening the ends of a valve stem as described above, with the stems in water they cannot get up to critical temp and therefore are neither hardened or annealed,, just the very end is effected.
my thinking was perhaps doing the caps in a similar fashion would work,, that way the rest of the cap is not overly hard and in need to tempering and allow the face to be as hard as it will get.
the use of water was because of the acet torch being used,, one could not use oil
in this described procedure for obvious reasons, but a brine mix could be used to keep from
getting too brittle perhaps.
bottom line is one would probably be better off, making up new caps out of a known steel of known carbon content
and then harden, polish and temper as Hotater has described.
it is a very interesting process, i have done knife blades, custom cutters, and drill bits, chisels and punches etc.
it is a great art to learn.
i think i would like to try both methods, to see how effective the torch over water method might be,,, it seemed to work on valve stem ends,, perhaps sitting the caps ontop of a valve and trying it would prove out the concept,
failing that i would go the full route as described by Hotater.
good stuff,
bob g
