I know its been mentioned a time or two, but has there ever been any evidence that boiling traps actually weakens them?

I only boil them for about an hour then pull them out so don't feel that is long enough to do any damage, but guess I could be wrong.

You can not change the temper of spring steel with only 212 degrees.

i don't think ya can get em hot enuff to hurt em just in boiling water.
but i went to dippin so i aint got any worries anyhow

Nope never get hot enough!!

I understand what you guys are sayin about the traps not being able to get hot enough because of the water but what about traps sittin at the bottom touching the bottom of the pot. Will the water keep the pot cool enough or not? To keep the water boiling wouldnt the pot be hotter?

the water will still bubble around the traps keeping the traps from getting to hot. to much rust will damage a trap long before boiling would. just don't let it boil dry.

Because of the law of physics it's impossible to heat the water or material in it high enough to lose any temper in the steel

Now if you boil all the water away you may just end up with trash if you are away long enough and the heat gets high enough for a sustained amount of time!!

Ok thats answers my question, thanks.

Chance of it changing the temper is very liitle I believe, but the traps on the bottom touching metal to metal can certainly get a lot hotter the 212.

Keeping them suspended above the bottom of the pot on the chain should avoid that right?

Yes it would, a suspended trap in water will never change its temper.

One should put the first layer of traps in the bottom jaws down in MHO (i.e. springs up).

212 deg will not hurt the the springs. The only way that this temp can be exceded is if the spring of the trap is setting directly on the bottem of the container and the heat source is directly across from it. When the bubble is formed the is no water quench. The condition is called impengment. It is not common and can be avoided by placing something in the bottom of the container (screen mesh, or steel sctap) to keep the trap from direct comtact withh the bottom.

If I remember correctly from metalurgy class, you will start effecting temoer in steel at 1200 deg F. Even if it was sitting on the bottom, I seriously doubt the trap or springs will see that kind of temp.

think about this, music wire is heat treated for stress relief at 500 degrees, that doesn't change the qualities of the spring, it just makes them so they won't crack or break as easy. Here's another one, in your car or truck engine there are many springs that get heated well past the 212 degrees that boiling water does and do they weaken from that? no, it takes a great deal of heat to change the qualities of spring steel, so no worries.

Thanks everyone and I dont think even if you tried you could get much of the spring against the bottom of the container with a coil spring trap.