1900 Mainspring

[G.T.]

Hi to Ron, John and all... John, on the type of steel and the weight of the "pull" needed, you will find your options are thankfully limited... The original springs were made from a basic high carbon steel, probably comparable to 1075 spring steel, perhaps a bit higher in carbon, as they obviously had a high failure rate, which could be attributed to either brittle steel, or improper tempering.. To support this statement, now days, you have to have very special climate controlled conditions, and ovens, to properly heat treat and temper 1095 spring steel..... 1050 to 1075 small parts, you can temper and draw successfully with a torch... Your reproduction springs are going to fall into these ranges of steel, both from a production cost factor and a design requirement parameter... In essence, if you use the correct material, and build it to the exact spec's, and temper / draw (pigeon blue) it using todays modern methods,your springs tension will be automatically correct... I'm thinking 1075 annealed spring steel, and you'll have a better spring then they ever dreamed of making!! Best to all, til....lat'r....GT