Spring steel

Md02geist · Post by **Md02geist** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 9:02 am

Anyone use spring steel regularly for armor or particularly helmets? I'm not familiar with it's properties versus mild or stainless. I've only used spring steels in knives, and almost always it's been "special" formulas.

Anyone care to shed some light on the subject? I know that a poor temper can totally ruin it's protective quality.

Jeffrey Hedgecock · Post by **Jeffrey Hedgecock** » Sun Mar 13, 2011 4:39 am

Do a search. There's plenty of info on spring steel already here.

Md02geist · Post by **Md02geist** » Sun Mar 13, 2011 2:08 pm

I've looked but having issues locating precisely what I'm looking for. I'm basically just deciding between stainless and spring steel for a custom helm.

Konstantin the Red · Post by **Konstantin the Red** » Sun Mar 13, 2011 2:14 pm

Heat treated spring will be even more dent resistant than stainless at the same thickness, at a greater involvement in maintenance. Spring will have the blue-gray highlight of a plain steel, SS the white, aerospace-metal highlight. SS takes minimal maintenance.

Both cost extra from a maker, each for its own reason.

Spring stainless can also be gotten, but such helms and armor are rare indeed.

Md02geist · Post by **Md02geist** » Sun Mar 13, 2011 2:44 pm

Precisely the summary I was looking for. Thank you very much for the information!!

schreiber · Post by **schreiber** » Mon Mar 14, 2011 7:30 am

Konstantin the Red wrote:Spring stainless can also be gotten, but such helms and armor are rare indeed.

I've been playing with 410 and can tell you why: spring stainless doesn't seem to behave the same way as medium carbon spring steel.
The 410 alloy in particular forms chromium carbides when it's quenched, which from my experience makes it very tough, not very brittle, and also not very springy.
The overall effect is kind of like mild steel which is a couple gauges thicker - 22g hardened 410 seems to behave like 18 or 16g mild.

Though I don't know why different properties would make it not get used. The end properties of it aren't a negative - just different from 1050. In fact, its tendency to deform rather than shatter, even at full hard, I think would be a plus.

I guess some people just don't like working it - though in my experience it's easier to work than 300 series stainless - perhaps mainly because it's thinner, but it always seems easier to file, too.
A heat-treated helm out of 14g 410 wouldn't rust and wouldn't dent, and I don't think that materials or processing would be much more expensive than 1050.