AusBonsai

G,day Fred, I am replying to your OP re spring steel. It is so named as this is an relatively high tensile,high carbon "black steel' used as leaf springs for trains, busses @etc. This work hardened steel is in great demand in developing economies,to be cut up and reforged as working tools whether for bonsai ,knives or nails. These 'spring steels',while prone to rust,are generally of superior sharpness and ease of resharpening than (so called) stainless steel. "Stainless" mean just that;,not "never rust". The addition of Cr to black steel makes the resulting alloy much softer,not harder. Cheap "stainless" usually contains large inclusion bodies of improperly included metals,which leads to premature stress fractures and chipping of the working edge. Hope this helps, cheers, Mike.