I would hate to guess how many steels I made from heavy comercial garage door springs. Our black powder club used to give them away as prizes for the junior shooters, each kid got a prize.
I would zip down one side of the spring with a Oxy-map torch and make a mess of blanks. Then to the forge to heat, straighten, and clip off the burnt ends on the anvil hardy. Then I'd draw the ends out to a point and form the little curls. Next heat, the big curls. Next heat I 'd use the flatter to forge em out flatter. Next heat treat. I quenched them in water and drew the curled part back to blue and left the face about straw. It sounds a bunch more time consuming than it really was. I doubt I had 10 min in each steel.
B.J. Habermehl