Workers wearing heavy clothing pull red-hot steel from a forge and wrestle it into a jig, its coarse, glowing surface straining as it finds its new shape. The men use metal tongs as the instruments of change as they bend the hot, malleable metal and force the transformation.


Its a scene reminiscent of the blacksmith shops of the American West, but here at Pohl Spring Works, of Spokane Valley, these craftsmen design, manufacture, and sometimes install steel springs ranging from 600-pound leaf springs for 18-wheel semis to miniscule coil springs for reading glasses.


Youd swear it was the guy working in the blacksmith shop in Gunsmoke, says Jack Jackson, production manager.


Much of Pohl Spring Works equipment, including jigs, fitting and assembly benches, and forges, were made in-house, and some are World War II vintage. Theyre continually being refurbished and rebuilt to accommodate long years of use, says Marcia Williams, co-owner of the longtime company with her retired father, Bob Williams.


Even the two brick-lined forges Pohl uses to heat carbon steel for leaf springs to 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit and then again to 900 degrees Fahrenheit would be hard to replace because of their high cost and specific function, says Jackson. He says replacement forges can cost more than $1 million.


Pohl Springs was started here in 1915 by two brothers, Art and Joseph Pohl, who, having emigrated from Germany, first contracted with the U.S. military during World War I to make razor blades, says Marcia Williams. The young venture quickly learned to bend and sharpen steel, opening the door to the agricultural market, and shortly thereafter began making steel springs.


Today, We can literally make any spring, says Williams, who asserts that the 12-employee company differs from most of its competitors because its willing to take on custom orders for a single coiled spring, rather than requiring minimum orders of 1,000.


Jackson says larger companies often can reduce the cost per spring to just $2, but the $2,000 price tag for a minimum 1,000-piece order is still more expensive than the $65 to $100 Pohl charges for a custom-made spring.


Some 60 percent of Pohls about $1.5 million in revenue last year came from the sale of leaf springs, 25 percent from coil springs, and 15 percent from steel shanks used on agricultural equipment.


Leaf springs


Leaf springs are made from curved strips of steel of different lengths, typically varying from 18 leaves to three leaves, or layers, in thickness.


Any of a number of variations of the leaf spring has been used for suspension purposes since the Model A and Model T were first built, says Jackson.


The leaf spring holds the weight of the vehicle up off the frame at a certain height, he says, adding that without one, the weight of the vehicle would be literally down on the tire.


Leaf springs today are made of steel comprised 60 percent of carbon. Carbon becomes malleable when heated to a high temperature, then becomes stronger and more resilient by being baked at a lower temperature a second time, Jackson says. He says the carbon in the steel adds flexibility.


The individual leaves in a leaf spring are stacked together in layers in such a manner that the longest one is at the bottom, and each one atop it is increasingly shorter, but centered in the stack.


The longest, main leaf, is heated individually and its two ends are manipulated around a mandrel to create eyelets used later to attach the finished spring to a vehicle. It and the other leaves, still flat and cold, each get a hole, in the center, where a bolt eventually will bind them together into a single leaf spring.


The first of two forges the leaves are put into is 8 feet long, 3 feet tall, and 4 feet wide, is fired by natural gas, and is programmed to have an inside temperature of 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit. The leaves are placed in the forge for 15 minutes to 45 minutes, depending on their thickness and width. Once the red-hot leaves are removed, theyre individually bent, or arched, over a steel pattern that meets the exact specifications for the vehicle for which theyll ultimately provide suspension. This only takes seconds for each leaf, Jackson says.


Once the leaves are bent to the proper dimension, theyre dipped into a 500-gallon tank of machine oil to cool for 30 minutes.


Called a great big Easy-Bake Oven, by Jackson, the second forge, a draw furnace, heats the curved leaves to 900 degrees Fahrenheit for 90 minutes. Because of the molecular properties of carbon, the higher heat from the first forge breaks down the steels molecular structure. The 900 degree heat in the draw furnace binds the carbon molecules together, making the reshaped leaf stronger and more resilient, Jackson says.


After being removed from the draw furnace, the leaves are cooled for two hours at room temperature.


Cooling the leaves too quickly would break the molecular structure of the carbon, and putting water on them would cause cracks in the steel, says Jackson.


Once the leaves are cool, theyre assembled and, whenever an arched piece doesnt fit perfectly, the blacksmiths hammer is hauled out to tweak minor flaws before the binding bolt is inserted to tie the leaves together. A steel clip is added toward the end of the most- interior leaf to prevent the leaves from later fanning out from wear, and the product is complete.


Williams says Pohl has the capability of making leaf springs for almost any vehicle, and that its springs easily last 30 to 60 years.


Coil springs


The company makes coil springs on a lathe from round carbon-steel rods, which are wound around a spinning, round mandrel on a machine lathe. The diameter of the mandrel equals the diameter of the interior of the spring. The rods are heated to make larger-diameter coils, and left cold for smaller ones.


Although coil springs have multiple uses, their primary use is to compress with force, and to extend and retract, Jackson says.


Williams says the small company has thousands of sizes of mandrels to fill custom coil- spring orders, but could never stock its shelves with finished coils in advance of orders because of the multiple strengths and lengths of the coils its customers demand.


While one order might be for a 30-foot long coil spring for the huge garage doors at the Spokane Transit Authoritys main bus facility on Boone Avenue, another could be for the aforementioned tiny coil spring for a pair of reading glasses.


We are one of the only companies in the U.S. that can make and fill orders for one to 1,000 coil springs, or more, says Williams.


Meanwhile, the agricultural steel shanks Pohl makes are 45 percent carbon, compared with the 10 percent to 15 percent carbon content in normal steel, Jackson says. They also are heated and bent.


The shanks, which range in length from 21 to 25 inches, are used to part the soil so liquid fertilizer can be injected into the ground behind them. Theyre attached to specialized equipment, usually equipped with 50 to 54 shanks, that are pulled behind tractors, he says.


Pohls agricultural shanks mostly are sold to farmers and fertilizer companies in Washington and Idaho, while its leaf springs are marketed primarily in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, says Williams. The companys coil springs are sold all over the world, she says.


The company has been located at 6415 E. Nixon since 1962. There, it has three buildings that have a total of about 14,500 square feet of floor space.