Railroad spike knives

[yodog]

I have a friend who makes knives out of old railroad spikes Good steel???
I have seen many knives made this way Mostly stickers of somesort or another

 

[s0rce]

I would presume it is a low carbon plain steel, making it not very suitable for knives. Althogh I could be wrong.

 

[Mr.BadExample]

I have a railroad spike knife made by Tai Goo, it's held up to use pretty well.

 

[Keith Montgomery]

Even Tai has stated that about the best you are going to get is 45RC out of railroad spikes. They have a carbon content running from about .10% to around .30%. They do make nice letter openers and desk ornaments though.