I gave a go at this, and I was getting great results, then it broke. I learned that drawing the holder part out as a square was much much faster and simplified things a bunch.

When I bent it over to an angle to start forging the the holder flat, it must have cracked because when I flattened against the shank it cracked.

I flattened the rest and tried forming as a learning exercise, and it went well, but I rolled the spring upside down!

1/2 x 1 is lots of stock, 3/8 x 1 like Brian Brazeal used would likely be plenty. Brian also proved that welding does make sense in his "welded bundle" thread.

I found that instead of half face blows to shoulder the extra stock for the coil, I cut it with the hardy till near 1/4 inch was left, then drew it down. Lots easier. Bending the lump out of the way and using the hardy to cut the rest would likely work well too. I'll try that next time.

Some ugly pictures. If it hadn't broke I would have spent some more care getting it uniform, and could have reversed the coil by tightening a little and passing it through itself.

I'll give this a try again. It was fun, and educational.

Phil

Just to update on this thread, Thanks to Phil for his posting, it has proved to be a good honest blacksmithing piece.

At the Devon County Show, we have various competition classes, including 3 live forging competitions, one of which is 'Make an item to a sample in a time specified' and this piece seemed and proved to be an excellent choice, simple and functional.

Seven people responded to the challenge, all made an excellent job of it, making the judges job extremely difficult.

The material supplied was 20mm x 10mm x 150mm long, and the time allowed 75 minutes (one and a quarter hours)

A couple of the pieces will be on display at this coming weekends iForgein at Westpoint, a demo could be put on if anyone would like to see how it can be done. The times taken ranged from 50 minutes to the maximum allowed. The original sample (the first one) I made took 65 minutes, hence the time allowed of 75 minutes.

All who participated enjoyed the challenge and felt it a worthwhile experience.