Latest spike knife

happycat

happycat

Joined
Jun 21, 1999
Messages
752
This is my lates spike blade harvested just last week from the tracks.
I ground down the head/butt quite a bit which helped with the balance issue. Still not near the blade, but at least in the middle of the handle rather than 1/2" from the butt.
 

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I like the look of the twist of the handle comming through on the sheath. I normally don't wet form my sheaths, but I will have to keep that in mind when I do another spike knife.

WS
 
Happy...

My dad worked until the day he died on the Railroad. I have s few spikes that i got from him. I would love to make a knife from them.

Could you tell me the steps you use to make a knife like yours?

I have a good forge. and vise and belt grinder, but I am unsure of how you did that knife.
 
That's a very good looking spike knife! One of the best I've seen in fact. I'll be looking forward to your DaQo'tah lesson too. :D
 
Looks good! Love that sheath too. I'm with everyone else, I'd like a mini-tutorial too. :D

BTW -- Are you using super quench on those spikes?
 
Cool knife Ed. I may have to ask you to go spike hunting before you come up so we can make some damascus ones. I've only got a couple left. Keep up the good stuff. Can't wait to see the "happycat" knife.
 
Thanks for all the kind words! I've never written a "tutorial" before, but I'll try to describe what I did. It's not too complicated.
One of the first things you may find is that these suckers are rather awkward to hold onto while you hit them. I use a pair of "nippers" (nail cutters) with a V shaped notch filed out of the middle of each jaw. This allows me to grab it from the head end the nippers fit around the head and the V grabs it by the corners of the spike.
I have been forging the blade to shape first, then twisting the handle, but I'm thinking it might be better to twist the handle first. Its just basically a lot of hammering to flatten the thing out to a proper blade witdth and length. If you start hitting it on one of the corners rather than the flat side it will give you a bit more width.
After I get the blade forged to shape, I heat the handle up then clamp the blade in my post vise and put a 12'long adjustable wrench back near the pommel and begin to twist. When it starts to cool stop and re-heat. It usually takes 3-4 heats. For right handers I use a clockwise twist as it gives a nice "thumbrest " on the left side of the blade.
I usually let the blade cool a bit in the vise before I start twisting. I've heard of people welding a handle onto the end of a pipe wrench for twisting as it gives you a two handed grip. (makes sencs, but no welder ;-( When I get twisted around so the pommel is pointing down again, I try and line everything up so its straight.
I use only spikes marked with HC on the head. These are supposedly high carbon and make better blades. I heat to red and let cool three times after forging to normalize (you've put a lot of stress in the thing with that twisting and need to "realax" it).
Then I grind, normalize three more times. Heat to non magnetic and quench in heated olive oil. Test with file to make sure you got it hard. Repeat if nessassary. Temper till dark straw color. I like to leave some black on the blade for contrast. I hand filed the ridges of the twists to flatten them out then sanded to 600 and buffed them. I ground down the head to about half its thickness as it is really butt heavy if you don't. ON this one I polished up the pommel for contrast as well. The blade is sanded to 600 grit. Thats it.
don't know if this is the best way, its just what I do. Again, twisting the handle first may be better. Sometimes when you do the blade first, the finger gaurd area will start to twist and I'd rather it didn't .
Anybody else got any tips or advice about doing these. They seem pretty popular. I was suprised at the Bill Moran hammer in show by how many people reached over my "more refined" work to check these out.....
Ed
 
Sorry for the late reply.

That is about the nicest Newbury (spike knife) I have seen. Did you draw it out (lengthen it any) before you started?

Craig
 
Craig. No I didn't draw it out prior to starting. On this one, I figured how much handle I wanted, and drew the rest out for the blade. I like the idea though, as this leaves things very "handle heavy" and I'd often like more up there for the blade.
Ed
 
cool spike knife, Ed. Thanks for the write-up, too.
 
That has got to be the coolest and slickest Spike knife I have seen. It looks rustic yet comfortable to use. Thanks for the write up! It has been added to my bookmark collection.
 
Thanks guys. If anybody else has any spike knife suggestions, I'm all ears. I'm just figuring this out as I go.
Ed
 
I wonder if you could draw out the handle part a little more before twisting with the idea that you would come back and fill in the twisted void with a handle material. Make sense? That way you still get a nice fat handle, but only half of it is steel and the other half is "wrapped".
 
Interesting idea Dan. I was just thinking of drawing the handle part out a little first to give me more blade room, but I like the idea of maybe adding something to the handle for contrast. Maybe braided copper wire or some such. When you said wrapped were you thinking of some sort of cord wrap?
Ed
 
I think you found your calling. I see a lot of spike knives now and to be honest, don't care for most of them. Yours are different. It is evident that a lot of work and thought goes into them.

Now make one and pull wet rawhide in the twists. It should make a great grip!
 
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