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My first leaf spring broke at the eyelet after 40 mins of work
Picked up a junkyard leaf spring Tuesday and spent 40 minutes drawing out the main leaf for a fire poker blank... got it to cherry and the eyelet just snapped clean off when I tried to bend it. Turns out it had a hairline crack hidden under the rust that I missed entirely. Anybody got a reliable way to check old spring steel for hidden cracks before you commit to forging it?
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laura_white991mo ago
That 40 minutes of drawing out, plus getting it to cherry, probably did more to show you that crack than any pre-check would have. I mean, you can grind off the rust and do a dye penetrant test, but even that misses stuff under the surface. Honestly, for a fire poker, you could've just welded the eyelet back on and called it a day. People have been making tools out of worse steel for centuries. The real question is whether you lost anything valuable besides your time. If it was a free junkyard spring, you're out 40 minutes and a little propane, not exactly a tragedy. I'd just grab another one and not overthink it.
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