ulyscol - Here is how to do it - from an old timer.
Cut your steel to size, round off all edges with emery - important!
Make your bend or form.
Now hang your piece from a wire - a paper clip will do - and use a propane torch to heat to a cherry red. Quench in oil.
On the same wire- over a soft flame, with the oil still on it - hold it into the flame untill the oil burns - than quench. Repeat this for five , six or seven times. Heat -quench and you will come up with a perfect spring. Nice and shiny black. Test it and you will be surprized as to how good it is..If it comes out to soft - you heated it to much. A little practice makes perfect.
In the old world this is called tempering.
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