Heat Treat Spring Steel. How to Soften the metal to work on it. How to Harden to revive the spring. 

Hello Dennis. As always, thank you for the comment. I must admit I don't make springs very often, but its a handy thing to know how to do, and you don't have to worry about different temperatures if you go by the glow of the metal and the oxidation colours. Take Care Jim

Hello Richard. Thank you for your comment. I'm glad you enjoyed the video. Take Care Jim

Hello Paul. Thank you for your kind words. I am glad you found the video of use. I wish you luck in your spring making. Let me know how you get on. Take Care Jim

Hello David. You are absolutely correct, I used the wrong word and thank you for pointing it out. For people reading this who do not know the difference between ANNEALING & TEMPERING: Annealing is used to soften and make materials more workable, reducing hardness significantly. That is what I did at the beginning of the video so I could bend the spring steel. Tempering is used to improve the toughness and ductility of hardened materials. That's what I needed to do with the spring after it was shaped and hardened again. Take Care Jim

Quite right Buddy.

Hello LockBits. Glad you agree. Thank you. Take Care Jim

Hello Mike. If you need spring steel it is available on Amazon, search for "Spring Steel Stock". A 1929 Matchless, I assume single cylinder with girder forks. My oldest bike is a 1948 MAC 350cc Velocette. Take Care Jim

Hello David Thank you for your question. In short, yes, you can use rapeseed oil, Olive oil and water, all have been used for hundreds of years by blacksmiths. As to which is best. This is a huge subject, which depends on the material you want to heat treat, and what quality you want to impart into that material. I am no expert when it comes to heat treatment, I tend to give something a go and see what I end up with using a piece of scrap. You can get an indication of hardness with a file, but use the end of the file, the part you don’t generally use, it doesn’t matter if you blunt it by filing something hard. Bending your test piece in a vice will give you an indication of its ductility. There is a huge amount of information online, I suggest you have a search, you will be able to find what you are looking for. I hope this helps. Take Care Jim

Hello Nick Thank you for your comment and question. As you probably know all steels are made from iron. As the iron is processed different materials are added depending on what particular characteristics you want the final steel to have. For instance, if you want stainless steel then the iron will be mixed with chromium molybdenum, carbon, nickel and nitrogen. Spring steels are typically made up of medium-to-high carbon steel, they also contain manganese and silicon. Can you process normal steel to make it into a good spring? I would say it is possible, but it’s going to be difficult in a home workshop. Search on Google there is a huge amount of information out there. If I need to make a springy something, I would start with spring steel. Hope this helps. Take Care Jim

Nope. The mild steel will not harden with any heat treatment, or any other tricks. You need to have a *suitable* spring steel alloy. That is, the same also applies to some spring steel alloys. For example, the 301 stainless spring steel makes very decent springs but only in its factory spring temper *rolled* flat condition. If you ever anneal it to reshape it, you cannot restore its temper with a heat treatment. Unlike the classic high-carbon spring steel, or some other stainless spring steels, or some other exotic steels, 301 can only be tempered via cold working with the rollers.