On Thursday, September 19, 2013 11:25:28 PM UTC-4, wrote:




I am a frugal person so my suggestion would be to go to your auto salvage yard and if you can find it, get a torsion bar from a Nissan Truck. Second choice would be an axle shaft. Both will require reducing the diameter using a carbide bit. But if you do use steel from a auto wrecking yard, try to get steel that as close as possible to the diameter you want. Not only for less machinging , but I am not sure how deep the heat treatment goes on axles and torsion bars.



Dan

After posting this, I looked around the internet and found that most car axles are now made of medium carbon steel. But also found Admiral steel near Chicago that sells to knife makers . And they sell 52100 steel in 3/4 inch dia at reasonable prices.

http://www.admiralsteel.com

About 3$ for 12 inches of 3/4 dia 52100 steel. About 6$ for 24 inches.

Dan