One salient point was overlooked in all the comments about this. How do you set up the gears so they will work? The main thing to be concerned about is chain length. The chain needs to be able to pull the upper pulley away from the large cog when you are in the lowest gear. So size the chain just short enough to do that. If you are going to try the 41-52 combo with a wide rage freewheel like 13-31 or 14-32 you will probably find that you can no longer reach the big-big combo when the chain is short enough to use low gear. The chain will be fully stretched trying to get into it, so don't ever try because if you shift into it by accident you will probably break the dropout or the derailleur. A better approach is to minimize the difference up front, like 42-47 or 41-46. Then you might just get by using all 10 or 12 gears. Interestingly, once I overhauled a 60's Carlton Flyer for an older customer and it had 42-52 with a 14-32 freewheel, and a steel Record rear derailleur. I thought that couldn't possibly work but it shifted the whole range easily.
Here's a better idea though. Send me your NR crankset and I will drill and tap it to take a 74 bolt circle triple ring, attached with Ofmega bolt/spacers which I have a lifetime supply of. Then you can use something like 32-42-47 with a 13-26 and everything will work great with NR short arm rear and NR front derailleur. You will need to get a longer spindle which is hard to find now, but Phil wood makes a great bb that will work. It's their size BRS19.
Bob Freeman
Seattle