Drills are HSS, not tool steel.....and the drill shank is pretty soft.....the ideal would be to go to an engineers suppliers and get some silver steel rod. Then you can make a proper job.....without getting too technical, It really is fairly easy to make a pin that is as good mechanically as an original using silver steel....the "secret" is in what you do when you have got the right shape done......all you do is heat it up to red hot (cherry)...easy on a gas ring/small part and and dip it in salty water, then clean it and get it shiny, and reheat carefully watching the colours change till it is the right one for your purpose, and "stop" it there by quenching again. I know you may think this is high tech, but I was taught this at the age of 12 in metalwork at school (proper lessons then....my O level wood/metal project was crossbow
)
Honestly, it's something anyone on here can do with a £10 propane torch, or a cooker.........This article may be helpful (he calls silver steel drill rod which is confusing, just ask for silver steel.....loads on line, and it's cheap in the sizes usefull to gun repairs.....ie. £1.68 for 1/4 inch by 13 inch!
Steel supplies;
http://www.engineeringsupplies.co.uk...eel-c-167.html
Useful Linky;
http://www.astronomiainumbria.org/ad...hrish/t-ht.htm
(Bear with the science, the second half is what you need.........It always makes me laugh when I say "I do welding at work", and people say "oh yeah, I have a little mig in the garage as well".... you would not believe the amount of metallurgy you need to learn to work on anything else than basic steels/alloys!!)
What you are doing is tempering the metal to have the ability to take loads/shocks/ without cracking, as it would if just left dead hard.....
OR........
Just use silver steel without any heat treat, or a drill shank (expensive way to do it) as it is way better than mild steel which has no place in any load bearing situation......(unless it's a rivet
).
The one fly in the ointment may be how blue takes to the silver steel......I have got some in the garage, when I dig the snow away, I will get it up to the house and try out some birchwood supa blue, and some nickerson pro blue to see if it takes.........TTFN, Ed