Railroad Spike Knife

Greg Covington

Greg Covington

Joined
Oct 28, 1999
Messages
1,563
My 9 year old son and I found a bunch of discarded spikes with the "HC" marking on the head while we were walking along some old tracks.

I made this knife for his last weekend from one of these spikes. It has a 7" blade that is 1/4" thick. The handle is local black walnut.

I forged the spike into a bar and then down to a blade. I did a little extra edge packing. The blade was normalized, then single edge quenched in my Godddard's Goop quench while it was at room temp and solid. I wanted a faster quench on this steel. I triple tempered at about 340F.

The knife cuts very well...has lots of flex and will shave hair. It passed the brass rod flex test and sharpens easy too.

While I am not sold on this material, I was very surprised at its performance.
<img src=http://www.fototime.com/0BFBA688AD6ED8C/standard.jpg>
 
X, thats a great transformation on the spike! Great looking knife. I never thought spikes could pass the tests. How much carbon is there in the HC spikes?
 
I remember reading somewhere that the HC on a spike stands for high carbon

It's a lovely knife your son must be very proud:D
 
Originally posted by Bruce Bump
I never thought spikes could pass the tests. How much carbon is there in the HC spikes?
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Bruce....me neither. I have been told that the "HC" spikes contain between .4 and .5 carbon....that they are either 1040 or 1050.

Bagwell used 1040 steel for most of his knives until later switching to 1065.

I would not want to take any ABS tests with this material, but when I press it into a brass rod, the edge clearly flexes over the brass and then comes back straight in line. The only difference that I see is that side of the edge bevel that is down will have a slight burnish mark, but the edge is untouched.

I have done chopping and cutting tests on everything from 2X4's to leahter, to rope....and it does very well. Not as nice as 5160 or 1084, but it is a decent blade.

The neatest thing about making this knife was using a rusty old spike and walnut from a friend's fallen tree.

Funny note: I have heard that the "HC" on the spike head stands for "high carbon" or "Hartford, CT". My son made the observation that is stands for "Hunter Covington"...which is his name!
 
X-rayed

I've made several hawks out of RR spikes, just edge quench in water and then let the heat ease back into the cutting edge then quench the whole hawk. There pretty tough and a lot of fun to throw,with a 16" handle from about 20' they'll stick every time.
Again nice knife.
 
the shape of the blade to guard to handle is TOO!:cool: makes you want to pick it up out of the screen.
 
What makes this knife so damn beautiful is its simplicity!

Not to mention the fact that you made a knife out of something you found near a railroad track... that is just neat.

GOOD JOB!
 
That's a great looking knife, XRAYED! Really nice! Great to see it beside another spike for the comparison. So amazing that something so beautiful could come out of that rusty hunk of steel. The handle is beautiful too. Did you stabilize that?

I'd watch out, if I were you. YOur son is likely to be dragging in all sorts of metal things he finds, for you to make knives from. Old Datsuns, wash boards, who knows what I kid will pick up? Have fun!
 
Pretty amazing... For most folks, a rusted railroad spike would just be a piece of junk. Talk about a purse from a sow's ear. :)
 
Keep in mind the laws of diminishing returns as you get more and more carbon in the steel. Going from .10 percent carbon up to .40 makes a much bigger difference than going from .40 to .60. A lot of medieval swords were made from .40 percent carbon steels. One advantage is that tempering was not as important to the process. A good smith still does it, but an untempered 1040 blade will survive a lot of things an untempered 1060+ blade would not. Also, that railroad steel often has like 12 percent Manganese in it, so it is very tough stuff to begin with.
 
Now that what I like to see.A smith that likes to Recycle.TOTALLY AWESOME KNIFE!!!!!!!!
You couldn't have made a rail road spike look any better.
My Hat is off to you.
Bruce
 
Originally posted by Bugs3x

I'd watch out, if I were you. YOur son is likely to be dragging in all sorts of metal things he finds, for you to make knives from. Old Datsuns, wash boards, who knows what I kid will pick up? Have fun!
Click to expand...

Anybody ever make a knife out of Yugo parts????? :eek:
 
Excellent! I think that's the first "cleaned up" RR knife I've ever seen! :D I really like the local walnut handle, too. You adopting :)

Dave
 
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