Not only does turning the steel easy to turn in a lathe, it also becomes the choice of the right turning tool for a particular steel with / without alloy and the hardness of steel when we think of cutting angle in the turning tool.
The choice of steel depends on whether the steel is tough, hardened or alloy depends on what you are going to use the steel for, for example, the chassis in the locomotive must be tough to be able to carry the weight or tools must be hardened to withstand wear. When choosing steel, follow the drawing which steel is recommended for it to last a long time in the machine or resist cracking, we choose one that is tough. There is also combined by both parts hard surface against wear and toughness in the steel against cracking as solidified steel is fragile to example in the crankshaft or cam shaft (rare used in own produced model engine due low load/wear).

There are many different codes depending on which supplier produces the closest / same quality steel. In the internet or in the catalog for steel there is listed in a table of various codes corresponding to the steel quality you are looking for.

Rollocks, I've just lost what I was typing. I'm not going to retype as SoD seems to have covered most of what I'd said. We can summarise as follows:

• Steel specifications are a mess and different systems have no exact equivalence
• For the purposes of making a clock it doesn't really matter if the exact steel isn't used, a rough equivalent wiil be fine
• Silver steel and gauge plate are sold in the UK as such and are roughly equivalent to W1 and O1

To be pedantic EN19 is not a high carbon steel; it's a medium carbon high tensile alloy steel. The principal alloying elements are manganese, chromium and molybdenum. The steel is also easily welded and the original 4130 specification is know as moly-chrome steel. In tube form it is widely used for welded tubular structures for aircarft and racing cars.

These people have useful datasheets on steel:

**LINK**

Andrew

More material for you! :**LINK**