I have an Armi San Marco 1860 Army .44 cal. and the hammer has always been difficult to pull back. I have a new 1851 Navy and the hammer is not near as difficult to cock. As always, I know there is someone out there that can give me good advise as to what might be cause the tight hammer and what to do about it.

I have an Armi San Marco 1860 Army .44 cal. and the hammer has always been difficult to pull back.I know there is someone out there that can give me good advise as to what might be cause the tight hammer and what to do about it.
Logan,

First check to see if the hammer or internal parts are binding against something in the frame or are the screws set too tight. If not, then:

You can remove the hammer spring screw and try putting some washers between the front grip strap and the hammer spring. The idea is to move the hammer spring back a little changing its angle with the hammer. I found some small nylon washers at my local Osh Hardware store that fit just fine. May have to experiment with how many to add on to get the hammer spring tension down.

Another method would be to "hourglass" the hammer spring. This entails grinding down the sides of the spring on both sides a bit to "hourglass" it. Gotta be careful here has you cannot put metal back on if you go too far. Make sure you don't grind down the ends of the spring, radius and polish the narrowed part to avoid creating stress lines which may weaken the spring.

Or just buy another spring from a parts house and hope that it's more to your liking.

Some springs that come from their Italian makers are just made too strong. Poor quality control? Best wishes!

Sometimes the mainspring is too long and binds where it locates in the hammer recess when the hammer is cocked. File the top of the mainspring off if it's too long. See it move in the hammer by removing the backstrape and wood grip. When it doesn't bind in the upper most recess of the hammer then it's filed enough. If the spring is ground to "hour glass" it to reduce tension then while doing the grinding dip the spring in cold water often so it doesn't heat up and ruin the temper.