Cold forging a file

Atlas Knife Company

Atlas Knife Company

Joined
Feb 16, 2010
Messages
3,668
I have a dull file that is narrow but thick, maybe 1" by 1/4" and about 12" long. What would happen if I would duck-tape it to a railroad track? While I don't expect it to be flattened like a penny, I am thinking it would be a bit thinner and work-hardened?
 
It would shatter into many pieces. A file will break in half if you slap it hard against a hard surface.
 
Potentially could derail the train as well. Bad idea...many federal laws against putting stuff on railroad tracks....
 
When I read the post, I clicked on your profile to see if you were a 16 year old. No such luck, it says you are a grown-up businessman.

Besides being a felony, it would ruin the file. The best result would be that the file ends up as a pile of chips and dust, a bad result would be you end up doing five to ten years making shivs in the license plate shop,....the worst case would be that you end up doing 20 years for killing people on the train.

I think my reply tells you what I think of this idea.

Your profile says you've got kids....think about them before you think of any more crazy ideas.

I'm not impressed!

Stacy
 
:DHow about sticking a knife blade into the clothes drier with a bunch of steel bearings and turning it on for a couple hours...would make a pretty nice tumbled finish eh?
 
I used to work for the railroad and I've run over everything from fallen trees to cows to mopeds. I'm certainly not advocating this, but it wouldn't hurt anything. You WILL go to jail if you get caught, and your file will be destroyed. I dropped one in my garage and it broke into three peices.
 
Like amflud, I'm not advocating this, but you'll want to aneal the file before you do any work on it. (that is, make the steel softer.) Now, what you really need to do is get a chop saw, cut off about 12-14 inches of that track, take it back home and use it as an anvil.
 
A simple "No, it won't cold forge" would have been adequate. I didn't know that files were so brittle. Any suggestions for a long, thick, skinny file?

Hmmm, a lot of misconceptions about what it takes to derail a 150 ton train engine. Didn't they do a mythbusters episode about that once in season 4. . .
 
You can grind a knife from it, but you will want to temper the hardness back a bit. Cold forging really has no place in blade-making IMO and is certainly a no-no with any hardened steel.
 
Zaph; Welcome to the makers area. this is the first I've noticed your posts. Now with all due respect; We'll try being nicer if you try being smarter. How did you think a file cuts if it wasnt harder than mild or atleast annealled steel to begin with. Prehaps a little reasearch on your part would be more appropriate before posting. I think you'll find most of us more than willing to, and in some cases, willing to even go WAY out of our way to help fellow newbies and old salts alike get started or learn something new. but please, Please, PLEASE! do a little research on your own first. now then enjoy your stay, welcome to the addiction. your file can be ground into a very servicable blade. The first bucks we're made from files. something to look for when working files is to look for the maker's names Nicholson or simmonds. these makers use 1095/W1 for 99% of their files. so they are made from great knife steel to start with. there are 2 methods to grinding your file, one is to get it hot while grinding then re-heat treat it. Or 2) keep it cool and dont let it change colors when grinding. so that's grind for a second or two then dunk in water. And please post pics when you've completed it. :D

Jason
 
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My reference to injury on the train was somewhat hyperbole, and I never said it would de-rail the train.
However, in this modern day of bombings and such, I would suspect that if the engineer spots any object duck taped to the track he would immediately try and stop the train if possible. This could cause someone onboard to be injured.
I do know for a fact that if you are caught, your kids will not be happy with visiting dad in prison.

One reason for the over zealous replies is that many kids read this forum. If something like your question is given a short, joking, or non-committal reply, they are real likely to go and try it. It is the responsibility of the forum as a whole to avoid this. Lately we have had a lot of posts from kids ( even though some of them have filled out false or misleading profiles) asking lots of dumb questions. Now, there is no shame in asking a dumb question,we have all done that, but we would be remiss not to give it a straight forward answer.
 
I actually looked to see if it was April 1...

Considering that a file is about as hard as a piece of steel will get, I expect you would probably damage a wheel on the train, gouging it and reducing its life.

I'm normally the last person to encourage a pile on, but I actually did snort some coffee into my sinuses.
 
It would make a great rolling mill if the steel was hot. Now if I only had a train and enough track. Not trying to encourage anyone to setup their forge by the tracks. Just thinking what if.
The comment about the cows reminded me of my grandfather telling me about the Government agricultural experiment station where he worked late in life, buying a high dollar bull, which then proceeded to stand on the tracks and take a head long charge at a train. Darwin strikes again. Talk about instant hamburger.
 
ib2v4u said:
The comment about the cows reminded me of my grandfather telling me about the Government agricultural experiment station where he worked late in life, buying a high dollar bull, which then proceeded to stand on the tracks and take a head long charge at a train. Darwin strikes again. Talk about instant hamburger.
Click to expand...


I believe it was John Wayne, talking about bulls, who referred to them as "2000 pounds of stupid, wrapped in leather"
 
R.C.Reichert said:
:DHow about sticking a knife blade into the clothes drier with a bunch of steel bearings and turning it on for a couple hours...would make a pretty nice tumbled finish eh?
Click to expand...

i have a pile of carbide inserts we could add to the mix...

Has anyone found some of the case-hardened files? Not that I'm suggesting playing on the tracks... it just sounds interesting
 
Actually, I did a little math and found that at only 25 tons per wheel a train really isn't that much bigger than most hydraulic presses.
 
Normally I don't bash people online for a dumb question but man seriously, what in the hell are you thinking... Federal offense is what you are thinking... With the new laws against terrorism you would get life a few times over especially if even 1 person got hurt, don't even need to get killed, just hurt. As a safety manager most of my life I have to wonder if you are on drugs... With kids, I hope for their sake, you are not.
 
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