Buying hairsprings, and hairspring help

[dutyswatchandclock]

Hello all, I have a couple questions, hairsprings (I have found) to be very hard to order new, and hard to find in general, does anybody have a good hairspring supplier they you guys could share with me?, its an old Ingersoll-Waterbury 16S pocket watch 4 jewels, iv already pinned and trimmed a hairspring I found around the shop, but I didnt select the right strength, to strong a hairspring, which leads me to my second Question.
What is the best way to find the strength of an unknown hairspring, Thanks,
Mark.

[Bob Tascione]

Ahhh, yes that’s a tough one Mark.
Hairsprings are usually rated using the CGS system (Centimeter, gram, can’t remember what the S stands for?? ‘I’m guessing’) or by an older system. My approach was more a trial and error method starting by matching diameter and coil count to get a good start. At that point I can begin testing by vibrating. I do have an assortment of hairsprings to mess with but normally would just order a hairspring by caliber/model of movement. Anything beyond that I would often just send the balance out to a hairspring vibrator. Used to use Guy Colantino many but he passed away many years ago. He could do in a few minutes what would often take me hours. He was a true artist. I think Tmac (Tom) put some Phillips curve charts up here recently. Might have some good info in there. At least I think they were Phillips curve charts. I’ll check and will let you know where they are.

Take care for now,
Bob

[Bob Tascione]

Yes it was Tmac that posted them. Here’s a link to his post which contains a link to the pdf file.

Adios for now,
Bob

[Author]

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