In this video i show how i make a winding stem having a broken sample. Using cheap, self-made tools. The "lathe" is an ER20 shank (10-11 USD) with a 2mm collet (1-2 USD) . It is driven by a discarded car blower fan DC engine powered by an old SUN Microsystems PC power supply at 5V. The material for the staff is a piece of spoke from an old Czechslovakian Favorite road-racer. It is a high-carbon steel. Glass hard if hardened but really soft and easy to work with if annealed. So it was heated to red-orange and let cooled down slowly before started the turning process. And at the end it was heat treated again to make it hard. It was heated to cherry red and dropped in cold brine made it glass hard and brittle. Finally annealed to blue color to have optimal hardness and strength.
I am a hobbyst so it took me two weeks (2-3 effective working hours per week) to make an acceptable pice. Made 5 defective pices or mistakes and the staff fractured.
I have sent the staff to the customer today, before posting this video. So now i am waiting for the testing result in the movement :)