Serious question, has anyone else tried forging with old railroad spikes from the yard?

I grabbed about a dozen spikes from a pile near the old tracks in Springfield last month, thinking they'd be decent steel for practice. Heated one up to a bright orange and started working it into a simple knife blank. The metal moved weird, like it was fighting me, and after quenching in canola oil it developed a crack right down the center. Turns out, a lot of those spikes are just low-carbon iron, not the tool steel I assumed. I wasted a good three hours on that project. What other common scrap metal have you guys tried that ended up being a total letdown?

3 comments

3 Comments

tessap989d ago

You're both missing the point of using spikes. They're perfect for learning because the soft metal is forgiving for beginners. @the_river, a bottle opener bending is a good lesson in material limits, not a waste. I've made tons of decent practice pieces and decorative hooks from them. Expecting tool steel performance from scrap is where people go wrong. It's free metal to build basic skills without ruining good stock.

the_river9d ago

Oh man, railroad spikes are the worst for that. They look so tough and ready to be a sword, but they're basically just fancy nails. I tried making a bottle opener once and it bent like it was made of clay. Total waste of a Saturday morning.

wesley_grant339d ago

Ha! My buddy tried that with an old leaf spring.