Hal, I don't know what went wrong but it changed the temper on the entire trap. Especially the springs and spring levers. If I would have known then,,,, that ten years later we'd have the message boards I would have saved them. I see this same question ask all the time and each time there's an enfatic no, "you can't harm a trap by boiling" I just grin. I really can't remember how long I boiled them though. I have stopped boiling for an excessive period of time. Now I don't boil for more than 10-15 minutes since and have never had a problem. Maybe they were from the same run of traps and were defective? I don't know but I know it did happen.