Thanks for all your comments. I still wonder if the spring isn't original and here's why. As I stated in my original post, the paint on the vice including the spring in question, is all the same color and the way the paint was applied with coverage on difficult areas to reach, suggests that it was done at the factory. As far as the paint being too shinny, I used a buffer on it after I cleaned the vice. Another reason and probably the most compelling is how the spring actually fits and functions in the vice. With the jaws of the vice closed, the spring is fully compressed with all the coils pressed tightly together. In other words the movement of jaws and the length and the diameter of the coils are precisely in sync with each other. I think that would have been difficult to accomplish, by your average blacksmith or tradesman back in the day. Anyways, just my thoughts. Let me know if this additional information has any effect on your thinking about the originality of the spring.
mike52
