scjohnson243

Morning IFI - I have about a 6' section of railroad track - I was wondering if I could cut it down and get it hot enough to reshape it to something (Basically cut off a chunk of the metal, put it in the forge and reshape it for something else) I need as much practice as I can get with the ol' hammer, was just wondering if this was a decent source of metal, or if It wouldn't work for one reason or another? I read alot of making anvils with it, but not anything about any other uses... Any ideas? Thanks,

I have just started smithing, and have been taking lessons from a great local smith, "Old N Rusty!" http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/36672-old-n-rusty/ I found out when I got there Saturday that OnR had contacted a friend of his, a local knifemaker, Rick Mouton. Rick got there and showed us what we would be working with! http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/36671-rick-mouton-knife-forging-where-we-started/ Rick Brought a ton of his work (some amazing stuff!) so I was really excited to see how this would work! Rick started heating the steel cable and started twisting it, putting on lots of flux, and twisting some more!!! http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/36667-rick-mouton-knife-forging-7/ http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/36665-rick-mouton-knife-forging-5/ http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/36663-rick-mouton-knife-forging-3/ After he had it twisted enough he put it on the forge and started hammering, and folding the metal back on itself, hammering more, and doing it all over again! http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/36662-rick-mouton-knife-forging-2/ http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/36661-rick-mouton-knife-forging/ http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/36668-rick-mouton-knife-forging-inside-the-forge/ After quite a while of this it started to look like what I thought a knife looked like: http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/36669-rick-mouton-knife-forging-getting-closer/ After a lot more hammering and heating he decided that he was happy with it! Was all ready to go except for the grinding, annuling, tempering and other things I really just dont understand yet! After several hours we had a knife "Blank" http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/36670-rick-mouton-knife-forging-finished-rough-forge/ All in all it was an amazing day! Thank you OnR and Rick for putting up with lots of "newbie" questions, and I cant wait till next week to do it all over again!