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Take your pick..... https://www.cousinsuk.com/category/pivot-steel https://www.hswalsh.com/product/blue-pivot-steel-wire http://www.m-p.co.uk/muk/parts/chap10/pivot-steel-0.61mm.-10pcs-no.72-0618007215.htm https://www.esslinger.com/staff-and-pivot-watch-and-clock-wire-rod-assortment-blue-steel-55-1-93mm-12-pieces/ http://timesavers.com/i-24049935-30-pack-3-00mm-3-95mm-blue-wire-assortment.html https://www.amazon.com/Assorted-Tempered-Pivots-repair-pinions/dp/B01N1SOLDF http://redroosteruk.com/11-assorted-tempered-blue-steel-wire-pivots-clock-repair-pivot-pinions-staffs/ https://perrinwatchparts.com/collections/metals/products/pivot_wire_43_2115?variant=37875445135 Google "blue pivot steel" and you will find more. This has been the basic stock for watch and clock pivots and staffs forever. It is a carbon steel that has been hardened and then tempered back to a dark blue so that it can be cut on a lathe. It is still quite hard, try and cut it with snips and it will resist, eventually giving suddenly and breaking rather than cutting. In the lathe though it cuts easily with either a tungsten carbide or HSS graver, although a HSS graver will need frequent touching up to keep it cutting with a good clean finish. Keep a hard Arkansas slip by the lathe for this. Let it get too dull and it will chatter, resulting in a poorer finish, and it will also cause you to apply more pressure to get it to cut. If you're not careful you will break off the work piece by pushing too hard. Don't try to cut it too quickly either, and don't expect long curls of swarf. Take your time and make dust. You will get a better finish and the HSS graver will keep its edge longer, whilst the tungsten carbide will be less likely to chip.It also burnishes well so don't try to cut the pivots to size in the lathe, leave them over size and finish in the Jacot tool. This doesn't need any further heat treating when you're done, it already has the right balance of hardness and strength for pivots and staffs, especially if you burnish the pivots in the Jacot as this locally work hardens the surface giving the correct hardness to resist wear whilst the rest of the staff retains enough strength to cope with a degree of mechanical shock without shattering. Practise and enjoy.

You can get carbon steel from here. http://www.mallardmetals.co.uk/products_and_services.htm

Nice Chrono Geo. Alpha makes some very attractive homage pieces using the ST19 movement which is manufactured using the same tooling Venus used for the 175. I don't think you can find a better deal for a mechanical chronograph and the movement is tried and true.

You can start with a simple nail, to practice. Moreover, the finished part can be hardened if heated in carbon powder. This will add carbon to the outer layer. The longer you treat it the thicker the high-carbon layer will be. And polish thereafter.

Max's site. He goes by the name mars-red and is quite competent, I know him from machining sites. I don't think he says a hss drill so perhaps it was carbon - again likely O1 or W1. imo its an strange choice, a drill, but it might have been just what he had and it worked. If it was HSS, he could have gone through the steps, but I'll push back that he hardened it. HSS is extremely tricky to heat treat, can't be done without a controlled oven. The reason is the temperature control has to be very precise - it has a small sweet spot. Its generally not considered possible without specialized equipment. Just for interest, carbon steel is as hard and tough as hss, but where hss shines is it holds its hardness at higher temps. This is why you can make all manner of cutting tools from tool steel and they work and last just fine so long as you run them slowly. HSS has obvious advantages for machine cutting tools as things can be run faster, but its also advantages in that the grinding won't affect the temper. i.e. your plane blade won't ever be used fast enough to get any benefit from HSS, but you can grind (where the point of contact temps are high) the bevel on the HSS without affecting the temper.

I have no way of knowing for sure, but would think it a probability its carbon tool steel that's been heat treated and tempered, O1 ,W1 or A2 (almost not material like difference between, except cost and how they are quenched). Personal preference is to work with it in the annealed state - I didn't mean to suggest anyone would or should anneal the blue steel, but when you buy say O1 it comes annealed.

Hi, I volunteer at local thrift shops to get watches ready to sell. Most of it is changing batteries, repairing bands, replacing crystals and stems and quartz movements. As an old (in all respects) automotive and aircraft mechanic , there's quit a bit of scaling down required to work on watches. I'm also a performing magician and sometimes wish my magic would work on watch projects! I joined the forum to get some help with a current problem which I'll post shortly.

I think this explains what I had to use. Because all that I needed to do was remove the blue. Thats way I said blue steel. I'm sorry if I confused people. http://elgintime.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/making-balance-staff.html

I didn't put that very well. So I'll try again. Could standards have been different, such as quality control, substandard.

It's an Alpha. Made as a homage to Panerai Radiomir Chronograph, but not labelled or dialled the same to keep it from being a fake copy.

I also had a box of unfinished partly turned staffs, which was also very handy. They ranged from watch size to pocket watch. Never needed to treat them in any way. That ol blue steel stock I had it must have been made back in 1900 or around that time as it came from my masters father who also was a watchmaker. I'm wondering if back then steel was made and treated different from modern day.

I (and others) use a piece of ordinary silver steel (1.2210, 115CrV3), harden and temper the piece to light blue color. Frank

Lord Matic with its NOS crystal now fitted

Hiya I've also bought one of these similar dial Slava watches on eBay. Mine cost me $9 - hopefully I can get it working and running pretty well. I will upload a pic in a month or so when its done. Cheers Alex

I have two male cats named Charley & Dexter. Charley is a mouser and very rarely stays in doors but Dexter is more of homely cat. Very often he sits on my lap while I am stripping a watch or clock. However he is not allowed in my workshop when cleaning and assembling because them cat hairs are a bloody nuisance.

How lovely. I have two cats, which are brother and sister. The male is called Crumble and the female is called Cookie.