Subject: Re: railroad spikes

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 4 Sep 1996 13:23:09 -0400

Steve,

In my experience, railroad spikes come in two versions: standard carbon and
high carbon. Nearly all high carbon have a C or HC somewhere on the head. The
difference from a standard spike are apparent with a grinding spark test. 

My guess is that the high carbon spikes are around 40%.  I have tried
hardening them in everything, including the Gunter Goop, with little success.
 I have made knives, letter openers, hatchets, etc. but was never able to
harden a blade to anything approaching a real knife standard.  If you could
come up with something I would expect only a hardening would be required and
not any tempering.  

If anyone has had any real successes hardening railroad spikes I would be
greatly interested also.

Regards,    Don Plummer

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From: "Steven O. Smith" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 4 Sep 96 11:46:38 MDT

A friend of mine makes knives from rr spikes. I don't know if they are
C or HC. He gets a very tough blade that keeps an edge by ignoring
hardening and tempering. He forges the blade to shape, sands to
finish, and he's done. Just air-cooled hardening, no temper.

--
Steven O. Smith
[email-masked]