A. J. Reeves stock it in various gauges, in 24inch lengths. I believe it is the annealed state, and will need to be hardened and tempered.

Sounds very much like the description of a rim lock spring. When I left work there was a assorted box of around 150mm lengths of steel for forming into lock springs. The works is closed until Tuesday, and I could find out then if they are still around. If they of interest, please PM me.

Quenching in a lead bath does require fairly accurate control of the temperature of the lead. Clock springs were tempered (in the good ole days) by dipping the wound-up spring in linseed oil and burning it off. The oil evaporates at the required temperature. If I remember correctly. It might perhaps have been a different oil?

Cheers, Tim

Edited By Tim Stevens on 25/08/2018 18:47:08

Know exactly what your attempting to make, has to be done right, done many for the trade worldwide.

To go round the peg thats better done from solid by drilling and shaping up after some what near. The V should be from the flat state left oversize all dimensions, turned flat (folded) hammer forged and annealed then left to cool.
Then its cleaned up closer to final size leaving room for any tags and excess lengths removed. Also thinned down, V end hammered then cleaned up.
Now starts the hard work, the strenghts in the turn what you cannot get by cnc or wire cutting etc, both arms cleaned up and set to a profile by bending. Then hardened and tempered to suit steel used.
Clean up again and pull the spring up (filing in exact area) so both arms dont collapse, should come in even right in to the turn. Highly specialised probably only three people alive with the knowledge.
Easy part is the fitting.