Spring Steel Available in Small Quantities
Posted by Paul Woodhouse at April 2nd, 2008
I always get mightily confuddled by various steel grades and types. Oh, I have the basics from 304 to 316 down pat, but when our Steve at Steel Strip mentioned to me that he’d started selling small quantities of spring steel I had to scurry off to Wikipedia to find out what spring steel actually was. All we get is this paltry stub:
Spring steel is a low alloy, medium carbon steel with a very high yield strength. This allows objects made of spring steel to return to their original shape despite significant bending or twisting.
Silicon is the key component to most spring steel alloys. An example of a spring steel used for cars would be AISI 9255 (DIN and UNI: 55Si7, AFNOR 55S7), containing 1.50%-1.80% silicon, 0.70%-1.00% manganese and 0.52%-0.60% carbon.
Most spring steels (as used in cars) are hardened and then tempered to about 45 on the Rockwell C-Scale.
According to Machinery’s Handbook, “The spring materials most commonly used include high-carbon spring steels, alloy spring steels, stainless spring steels, copper-base spring alloys, and nickel-base spring alloys.” According to the same, the most widely used spring steel is ASTM A228 (0.80–0.95% carbon) known as “music wire”.
I presume we’re not talking about slinky spring steel?
It makes a change to hear of somebody prepared to service the little guy…..as it were. Here’s Steve’s raison d’etre and combined mission statement:
Whilst steel mills regularly insist on minimum order quantities of up to 5 tons, and stockholders upwards of a ton, we have recognised the need of smaller engineering companies who may require as little as a single sheet to complete a project, or to replace a part in an aging piece of plant.
It can be frustrating and time consuming for an engineer to spend hours on the telephone trying to source small quantities of spring steel, only to find the supplier loses interest the moment he realises the small quantity involved. To be honest it’s as a big a problem often for the supplier as for the customer! Not for us.
So, if you’re looking to buy spring steel in small quantities I’d recommend you go and have a word with Steve over at Steel Strip as he’s a top bloke. Or, you can give him a bell on +44 1952 290313. (Yes, he can ship worldwide.)
Oh, and I can assure you I’m not on any commission. I just like it when people aren’t trying to stiff smaller companies - especially when they happen to be a mate. 
Dear Sir/Madam,
I have a Mother(81 yrs. old) that has had feet problems for most of her entire life and she is always trying to make shift something to relieve her pain. She gave me an idea when I saw something she tried to make work, it made me think when I was a kid I remember a spring steel piece something that was very thin and flat like maybe about three inches wide and about the same in length and I could flip it back and forth with a finger and it was a very light spring action, I could bend it almost in-two and it would spring right back to where it was originally. I would say that it would respond to about 7 oz. to 9 oz. of pressure maybe a little less or a little more, I believe that will give you an idea of the gentleness of the spring steel that I think I might need. It needs to be quite thin. I have a feeler gauge(used for adjusting the valves on the cars) that it looks like about 9 to 10 thousands that seems to be in the ball park for the strength I think we would need. I was just wondering since you are the best place I had found on the Internet I just thought just maybe you kind people would be able to steer me in the right direction to be able to find the material I am looking for, so at least I might be able to try to help my sweet Mother. May God bless You for trying to help me. I live in Arlington, Washington of the U.S.ofA.
I will be patiently waiting for a response from someone.
Robert L. Klein
My CELL Phone # 425 293 7239
THANK YOU!
That’s such a shame about your mother. There’s nothing worse than having a niggling medical problem that you can never quite alleviate.
Unfortunately, I’m not the guy to speak to - I only provided the link. I also wouldn’t want to be responsible for any medical uses you might have for spring steel.
Sorry I can’t be of much help.