Leaf springs and shocks

[updraught]

https://www.jstor.org/stable/4471608...o_tab_contents
An interesting old article on leaf springs and shocks.

So it says that the reason you do not want friction between leaves of springs is that the friction is greater on compression than rebound.
This is the opposite of what you want. An easy compression of the spring is required with good control of the rebound.