Train Rail Steel

Go to Don Foggs website and there is a post about junkyard steels where a guy had them tested..If Im not mistaken that post said in the way of 1070 for the track and the spring clips were something like 1055.
 
The Japanese used rail steel to make their Shin Gunto officers and NCO swords up thru WWII. By all accounts, these were fine blades.

(Yes, I know some were also traditionally forged...)
 
I read somewhere they used mild steel for flexibility and that the high carbon steel proved to be too brittle, especially in cold weather.
 
Depends on the gauge and individual manufacturer, but I've seen 1080 listed on a lot of websites for business that specialize in servicing and recycling worn track. I have a section I cut by hand from an old abandoned/torn up length of rail and that sure was a workout! Years of work-hardening on the rail surface makes for a decent small anvil.
 
I have a 22 inch piece of railroad track I found along some tracks in Pennsylvania. I found it in the early 90's. I thought I might make an anvil someday. Have no idea what steel it's made of. I found an unused spike as well.
 
singularity35 said:
Does anybody know what kind of steel train rails are made out of? Thanks.
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That would depend on the age of the rails.

Most traditional rail steels are ~1055. Rail steel has to be tough.

There has been some increase in carbon content in the last few years as car loadings and train speeds have increased. Nothing with 1% carbon though. See reference below.

http://www.iorw.org/jobknow4.html
 
Anyone know about the high carbon marked rail spikes used on corners?

I've got a bunch but my forge is down possibly for good this time.
 
knarfeng said:
That would depend on the age of the rails.

Most traditional rail steels are ~1055. Rail steel has to be tough.

There has been some increase in carbon content in the last few years as car loadings and train speeds have increased. Nothing with 1% carbon though. See reference below.
http://www.iorw.org/jobknow4.html
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That's some good information there. Careful reading will tell you a lot more than the obvious answer to the original question. Those micrographs are worth their weight in platinum. (gold is too much now).
 
Note that those are grades of steel for the UK, not America. Also, on freight rail a higher carbon content is frequently used (as attested to in how freaking hard it was for me to cut the section of rail I have--it came from a freight line) and is even higher on freight line that makes tight turns.
 
Many of the rail parts, turntable iron, frogs, switches, some connectors, some wheels, some straight rail is very often manganese steel, a miserable miserable steel to scrap, to cut (you have to use blow pipe shooting iron filings!) and use for much other than for what it was intended.
 
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RandomAyes said:
Surely the wheels are higher alloy, harder, & more wear-resistant than the rails.
Easy to replace a rail. Wheels not so much.
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Actually, I believe it's the other way around, though I'm not an expert. That's the impression I've gotten talking to train people over the years. Wheels wind up having to be reground to regain concentricity and roundness on a fair regular basis.
 
Thinking about those rails again. :) I would guess that used rail stock could be very considerably work-hardened, where the nature of the steel is subject to work hardening.
 
johnny1950 said:
Many of the rail parts, turntable iron, frogs, switches, some connectors, some wheels, some straight rail is very often manganese steel, a miserable miserable steel to scrap, to cut (you have to use blow pipe shooting iron filings!) and use for much other than for what it was intended.
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my dad told me similar, that when repairing/replacing rail it couldn't be cut properly with a torch.

makes a lousy anvil. the idea for rail is to be structurally strong with low mass, and mass is exactly what an anvil needs.

anyway, carbon steel is too cheap and available in blade stock to worry about making a knife out of rail unless it has some history/nostalgia associated with it.
 
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