Railroad spike

[GAstumpshooter]

I'v been think of trying to make a knife for awhile. I found an old RR spike on a hunting trip, would this make a good blade or not.Thanks

[LAR43]

There's a lot of better steels for making knives, but properly hardened & tempered it can make up into an interesting & quite usable knife.
Albeit a pretty hefty one.
Larry

[adkmountainken]

Larry,
       you serve the hunble pie pretty well my friend!!! i have a nessmuck style knife made from a RR spike by Larry and it it an awesome knife!!

[Ray Hammond]

Chuck Patrick of CP Forge used to come to all our big archery shoots in Georgia...man made some world class knives out of RR spikes and wire cable as well.

Awesome craftsman.

[LAR43]

It's all about the carbon content in the steel.
Spikes are relatively easy . . heat 'em & beat 'em.

Cable, due to the higher carbon content makes into some very nice knives but requires forge welding like pattern welded/damascus steel. Forge welding is a whole 'nother learning process entirely.

Because it's laminated there's lot of opportunities for weld failures ie. cold shuts, incomplete welds etc. It's quite a bit more labor intensive to make a billet before the grinding/ knife making even begins.
So far, I have about  6 feet of cable attempts in the trash.

Larry

[sticshooter]

Gee Larry not even enough good stuff for a small neck knife? Sounds like WORK!LOL<><

[LAR43]

Gotta make it into a billet/bar first Frank.

Right now I'm not happy w/ my forge welding so I don't keep the results. Heat in forge welding is really critical to it being successful. The flux can really goober up your forge too. I began using kitty litter in the bottom of mine so's I can kind of scrape it out instead of replacing the fire brick.

It's basically learning about & teaching yourself an eniterly different technique. Frustrating, but fun!

Larry

[GAstumpshooter]

Thanks everyone. My boss has a old forge and told me to get and see if it would work so I'm going to try it.

[LAR43]

Let 'er rip Mike.
Bring it up to almost orange heat & go at it. Ask plenty questions . .
Good luck.

Larry

[D.Sheppard]

I've got a dozen or so old RR spikes if someone wants them. buy or trade

[tippit]

They can be very pretty knives but as Larry says their carbon content is low end, therefore difficult to keep a sharp edge.

I did NOT make this knife!  Just to show what can be done...Doc

 

[adkmountainken]

here is the one Larry made for me, pic's do not do this knife justice ya really need to see it up close!!
 
 
 

[elk ninja]

Here's a cool one from a friend here in Idaho
 
 
Mike

[brettlandon]

They make nice throwing hawks, too!  That's my plan just as soon as I get my forge going.  I been doing a lot of reading on the internet and I am forming an idea for a forge in my mind.  
Whoops, ran out of RAM!  I'll have to reform that idea later...
   

-Brett