Steel

Have a few railroad spikes and rail plates from abandoned RR line. Is this something that one might use for making knives?

BlackRock52 said:

Have a few railroad spikes and rail plates from abandoned RR line. Is this something that one might use for making knives?

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Hell yeah, take a look at a couple of episodes of “Forged in fire” they often have RR spikes as a challenge. Looks like good steel too.

Knife building not in my future but maybe someone might be interested in them..

Spikes are made from different steels so they aren't all the same. The old saying "in rust we trust" comes to mind. The rustier they are, just like rebar, the more carbon is present. They do make great knives, hooks, and other forged items.

The rail plates should be handy too. Never tried them but, every evening by the tracks when out on my walk, I think I'd like to try that sometime.

BlackRock52 said:

Have a few railroad spikes and rail plates from abandoned RR line. Is this something that one might use for making knives?

Click to expand...

NO! Not even. Not for a serious working knife. Common RR spikes are worthless and just a joke for real working knives. Even RR spikes with a HC on the head have only around .30% carbon content on average and you will barely get any noticeable hardness from them, no matter how you heat treat them. They make good paper weights or conversation pieces. If you are going to spend time and energy making a knife buy or procure a piece of high carbon steel to work with. At least steel with a carbon content in the range of .60 bare minimum. 1080/1084 is relatively cheap and will make a great blade with a good but yet relatively simple heat treat. 1070 will also make an OK blade. 5160 spring steel makes a fair blade. You can also use a worn out file if you know it is high carbon. Some old ones are just case hardened, but most found in these times are usually good enough.

I make targets from rail plates. They give off a satisfying 'TING' when hit. They stand up well even when shooting unmentionable pistols at them. Wick is 1000% correct about using better quality steel for knives. 1080/1084 works very well, easy to forge, heat treat and temper.
Someone told me the HC stands for 'High Copper', meaning the RR spike is more malleable and the head is less likely to shear off keeping the RR track in place.
Ohio Rusty ><>

Derek Stevens who appeared on Mountain Men makes spear points, throwing knives and small tomahawks from railroad spikes. Low carbon good for paper weights, letter openers. Beginners sometimes use a length of rail for cheap anvil. It is good for hardening the tip of a copper pressure flaker by cold forging. the flaker can then be used to pressure flake a gunflint from debitage. Railroad spike driving hammers cut down from a "T" shape to form an "L" shaped tool mimics a Japanese blade smithing hammer.