Once I get them in the mail...I'll experiment on one.
I'll heat one up with the torch till it looses its magnetism (orange in color)...then I'll just dip it in water or old motor oil.
Then take a file to see if it skips over the metal.
After that...I'll probably heat it in my oven to make it a little tougher. Hardened steel is brittle so after it is made hard...you got to make it tougher by tempering it. The proper temps are the key to success. Sometimes you can see the temper color of the metal.
I ran a file on one of my worn outdrives...they are sort of hard. Some may be done better than others because I only have one that is worn. When they are made....the QC may be a little off.
I also recently found a graphite dry lubricant spray...It's called Blaster (Home Depot). I've found graphite to be an incredible lubricant on steel . I've seen this stuff do wonders on real stressed out components. Especially where you don't want sand and dirt to stick. This dry lube seems to stick real well and it's real messy but then it dries. I spray it in a Q-tip, make it soaked with the lube..then rub it into the outdrives etc.. You can just spray it in with the small red tube but it gets all over the place. .
Stuff like this takes a long time to test.
