Spike from an old house? Oooh ... probably not a high enough carbon content to make a good striker. Do a spark test on your bench grinder first. If you see lots of short, twinkling sparks it has lots of carbon in it. If you only see longer red streamers with very few sparkles, then it doesn't have enough carbon.
Good sources for "junkyard" steel for strikers:
Old hay dumprake teeth
New hayrake teeth from the farm store
Lawnmower blades
Pitchfork teeth
Garage door springs
Vehicle coil and leaf springs
I go down to the Farm Fleet store, and buy some of the new hayrake replacement teeth. They are approximately 1/4 inch thick round stock, and after you straighten them out, you end up with around 3 feet of high carbon spring stock - something like 1095. A 6 inch length makes a good C shaped striker, so you get at least 6 out of that hayrake tooth. You can flatten it, square it up, or even leave it round - and it will still make a great striker. The last ones I picked up a couple months ago cost $1.09 each! They were painted yellow, but that burns off real fast. And you are dealing with NEW steel, so you don't have to worry about any hidden cracks/splits/stress problems in reusing old steel.
And I also use some lawnmower blades. They are generally made from 1085 or 5160 alloy spring/tool steel. The big problem with them is chopping them up into smaller pieces to use. But you can also use them for making knife blades. And used lawnmower blades are generally available for free.
One of my next "experiment" projects is to forge up several strikers from Wrought Iron, and then case harden them in a traditional manner. This would be to replicate a small shop making a "one of" striker by manufacturing their own steel from the commonly available wrought iron. And then I will see just how long it will actually hold up - and continue sparking well. Just some "intelectual" research into some of the old methods.
Good luck on your striker forging.
Mikey - out in the "rusty" Hinterlands
Good sources for "junkyard" steel for strikers:
Old hay dumprake teeth
New hayrake teeth from the farm store
Lawnmower blades
Pitchfork teeth
Garage door springs
Vehicle coil and leaf springs
I go down to the Farm Fleet store, and buy some of the new hayrake replacement teeth. They are approximately 1/4 inch thick round stock, and after you straighten them out, you end up with around 3 feet of high carbon spring stock - something like 1095. A 6 inch length makes a good C shaped striker, so you get at least 6 out of that hayrake tooth. You can flatten it, square it up, or even leave it round - and it will still make a great striker. The last ones I picked up a couple months ago cost $1.09 each! They were painted yellow, but that burns off real fast. And you are dealing with NEW steel, so you don't have to worry about any hidden cracks/splits/stress problems in reusing old steel.
And I also use some lawnmower blades. They are generally made from 1085 or 5160 alloy spring/tool steel. The big problem with them is chopping them up into smaller pieces to use. But you can also use them for making knife blades. And used lawnmower blades are generally available for free.
One of my next "experiment" projects is to forge up several strikers from Wrought Iron, and then case harden them in a traditional manner. This would be to replicate a small shop making a "one of" striker by manufacturing their own steel from the commonly available wrought iron. And then I will see just how long it will actually hold up - and continue sparking well. Just some "intelectual" research into some of the old methods.
Good luck on your striker forging.
Mikey - out in the "rusty" Hinterlands
