What Steel For A New Reloading Press Handle

[one-mad-dog]

I broke the handle on my 35 year old Lyman Spar-T press the other day while reloading some 300 Savage. It broke off right where the threaded end goes in and I got the broken piece out with an easy-out. I can turn down the 5/8" handle and rethread (1/2" NC) but then the hande would be about 3/4" shorter. I thought instead of making a new handle from 5/8" stock and would make it a little longer for more leverage. Anyone ever do this before and if so what type of steel stock would be best for durability in this situation?

 

[BattleRife]

It broke off at a stress riser after 35 years of service, it is probably a fatigue failure. The ideal replacement would probably be a cold-finished bar of alloy steel like 4140, shot-peened after fabrication. Even if you skip the shot-peening, it will still likely last the rest of your life, and then some.

A real neat-o move would be to make it out of a rifle barrel. That would give you just about exactly the properties you want, and have a cool factor.