anealing rr spikes

[saintjohnbarleycorn]

I read the bp on it, anneal twice, bring to heat and leave in forge overnight. Well that the way I remember it anyway. I was wondering why they need more special attention than say 95 point straight carbon steel?

2. I was also thinkning that at 19 degrees out the forge kind of cools pretty quickly overnight, and might it be better to put it in the woodstove\fireplace over night as it would cool very slowly over a 8 or ten hour period.

thanks.

[easilyconfused]

There is nothing wrong with letting any steel cool in the fire overnight. I'm not a metalurgist for the specifics, but I the slower it cools down, the better it is annealed, particularly carbon steels. Railway spikes shouldn't need anyspecial treatment although cooling them slower to anneal them better might be a good thing as, if they are used, they likely have work hardened as opposed to new 1095.
I try to work on things that need annealing last and let them cool overnight in the forge fire overnight after I shut down or stick them in a barrel of old wood ash I have kept for that purpose. Sticking it in ash works well too as the ash insulates and I've had things still hot enough to burn 2 days later during the summer.

[Alan B]

I usually heat a scrap piece and place it in a bucket of sand. Heat the piece I want annealled and burry it in the warm sand over night. The slower the steel cools the better it will anneall

[R Funk]

RR spikes are a relatively low carbon steel.

Do they need to be annealed? I never have done this

Annealing is to make steel dead soft and reduce fracture potential early in the forging phase.

[RainsFire]

yes, they would need to be annealed.. some are high carbon enough to be hardened, so they would need to be annealed.

I just scored a 55gal drum of highcarbon ones.. that was one xxxx of a scrounge..

[steponmebbbboom]

why not just place it in a bucket of vermiculite?

available for peanuts at the garden center, insulates better than sand, no preheating necessary. i use it for punches, chisels, hammerheads, anything i need to anneal for grinding/filing before heat treating.

[ApprenticeMan]

No need to anneal spikes! You anneal proper blade steels like 1095 and stuff.

[RainsFire]

yeah really, what am I thinking lol..

you're heating them up anyway to hit them right? don't worry about it..

[saintjohnbarleycorn]

Thanks for the input, I have a bucket of vermiculite but have not put it to much use yet. The warmed sand sounds good also. The high carbon spikes I think were said to be .30 so that is not that much anyway I would not think. I was confused, because of the .95 hay rake teeth. The things I saw on them never mentions a double annealing.

[ApprenticeMan]

No need for double annealing any steel. For scrap steel being used like springs files or hay rake teeth known to be pretty good steel (or a good guess), not already annealed factory bars, anneal first by just heating up until past non magnetic, then stick it in the vermiculite. RR SPIKES there is no need, heat and beat, normalise, harden then temper.