VERY new Smith, First Knife.

I'm mostly using the scrap steel because before I spend money on steel so I don't waste good steel on screw ups. From my reading research the plates are a 1050 or 1055 steel which isn't terrible, and since I paid nothing for them I'm not worried about screw ups.
 
I wouldn't give up making spikes. It gives good practice for hammering techniques and if you screw up no biggie its just a spike. Then when your done pounding its a great steel to practice your grinds. Would you rather practice on a rr spike or real knife steel which is expensive. And lastly when you get better you can sell them online and make some cash to fuel the more expensive items. That's what I do and they sell quite well.

Good luck
 
That's kind of my idea, before I waste money on a steel that I probably would screw up on during either hammering or grinding, why not use the free stuff I have to practice hammer control and proper grinds.
 
see if there are any scrap yard where you can find some leaf springs you can make decent knives and they will get hard but or buy some 1084. as for quench oil I use parks 5o in a very large ammo can.
 
Yeah I was looking to go visit a scrap yard soon to see if they had some leaf springs, since I'm a student (and a cheap son of a gun) I'm trying to stay cheap, or free if I can haha. That's why I'm using the railroad scrap. The anchors and fasteners are 5160 so I'll probably try and find some of those to forge. The pain is going to be getting them straight.
 
I am going to chime in here. I forge HC railroad spikes often. I can offer some advise. Twisting. Heat the spike to yellow, Determine the break between the handle and blade, put the yellow spike about 1/3'd of the way into a vise. then twist using whatever tool you are going to use. I normally do 1/2 round twist. Some people do more, some less. Forge the blade, grind it to your liking. For the HT. I use a torch. I rune the torch on one side to warm it, then on the other side to final temp. I only run the torch about 1/3'd the way of the blade. Then I quench in Parks fast quench. Temper at 400. 2 hours, cool, another 2 hours.
Screenshot_2013-11-21-19-18-14.png
[/URL][/IMG] This is how it ends for me. I hope this information on my process helps. Sorry for the screen shot. It was the only picture I had available.
 
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