I'll have to say I'm with Gib on this one. New steel eliminates that stress situation, but then again, may have more inclusions (?). Another subject entirely, I guess. I like to use new steel when I can, but lucking out on an old truck or tractor in the woods and cutting out the springs is priceless, and I won't pass up on them. My expectations for a successful forging just can't be as high.
I don't subscribe to the "thrice this" and "triple-that" methodology, but I do take some precautions when preparing spring steel for forging.
1) Heat the spring to non-magnetic and then anneal it. I use a 50-50 mix of poplar ash and vermiculite. I always keep a steel tub of this close to my heat source, just so it stays dry. I try to do this before I cut it to size. Some folks will heat a spring up, hot-cut it to size, and THEN anneal. I think this starts the spring out with some stress, and I believe any stresses in the steel will cause a crack right then and there because the steel hasn't had any "relief" before it gets slammed with the hammer and chisel!
2) Normalize BEFORE forging.
I don't get too many cracks doing this, and the outcome is almost predictable.
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