Hammer assist spring ?

[Ron Overs]

>Hi folks..
>
>just a thought here...
>
>Why not a hammer assist spring instead of whippen assist spring ?
>Conceptually, you could essentially effect the same SW seen from the
>lower actions perspective for the whole action... which would allow for
>identical key balancing for the entire action.
>
>I just know there has got to be a few great reasons why this is
>ridiculous :)  But humour me ok ?
>
>Cheers
>RicB

The first and most compelling reason for not fitting an assist spring 
to the hammer is that the hammer travels through a much larger arc of 
rotation than the wippen, which would cause any assistance given to 
reduce more dramatically as the hammer rotates around its centre.

This progressively reducing assist force is one of the disadvantages 
of assist springs. The wippen, by virtue of it small degree of 
rotation, is the more practical of the two levers to assist. We have 
reduced the lack of linearity by including an extra coil in the 
spring. And yes I agree with you Bill (Ballard), when there is no 
adjustment screw, setting the assist spring pressure is nothing short 
of a pain.

Ron O.
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