The Leaf Spring

There are 3 leaves on this leaf spring.  The middle one helps push the disconnector.  The shorter curvy one on one side pushes out the grip safety.  The leaf with a hook pushes on the sear.

You can see how they all work together with this cool .swf animation

If you have really good contact between the sear and hammer hooks (better than I can explain in a post) then you can play with the tensions of the sear and disconnector leaves to adjust the trigger feel.  Firmer sear and lighter disconnector and you get more of a crisp break.  Reverse it, and you get more of a roll to your trigger feel where the anticipation is less.

At least ideally.  You really have to take the spring out and bend it and put it back in and test to see how it works.  And this process, believe it or not, is hella fun for a guy learning to put a 1911 together. And not that tedious.  You leave the grip safety out and use a long appropriately size punch pin to hold the mainspring housing in place.  Test the trigger feel, pull the pin, remove the mainspring housing, bend the spring then replace all three... Test.  Fast fast!

Of course don't let the hammer hit the frame.  So be careful of your thumb getting bruised.  Don't ask how I know how bruised the thumb can get...

If you really hate getting little injuries to you hands them maybe a gunsmithing hobby is not for you.  I wear a lot of safety goggles, too. 

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Be careful modifying this on your.  You lockwork may not be ideal, and you don't have someone sitting on your shoulder going, "You lightened the disconnector too much and might have safety issue down the line.  I know this from long hard earned experience."