Railroad Spikes????

[Greg Covington]

I see alot of knives forged from railroad spikes.

What kind of steel are RR spikes and are they hardenable?

What would be a suitable heat treat for a spike?

 

[Pretender]

From what I understand, the spikes marked with 'HC' contain about .4% carbon and are hardenable with Superquench type quenchant. Earlier spikes are lower carbon or cast iron and will not harden. I am not sure exactly what kind of steel the HC spikes are, maybe 1040? Also, not sure how hard they will get, guess around 55-56 Rockwell at best. I really liked the RR spike hawk that was posted a few days ago.

Dan

 

[Gerome Weinand]

my son inlaw works for the railroad and his big boss says hc only means hartford.conn thats where the spikes were made the best i have seen is rc40 in water they arent really any good only for orinamentel use

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