RR Spring Clips

[kevin1050]

Does anyone know what kind of steel they are made off? I am working with one and it is tough. It does not want to move under the hammer.

[Christopher Ford]

are you sure that you are heating all the way through and not just surface heating? I know these are thick pieces but i've forged thicker with no trouble as have many others, how long are you keeping it in the forge?

[ThomasPowers]

From Matt B
"The current standard for rail anchors is 1040-1060 steel, depending upon manufacturer."

----------------------------------------------------
MattBower
Location: Northern Virginia
I had a rail anchor -- probably from Unit -- analyzed recently. Here's the chemical breakdown:

C: 0.51 | Mn: 0.80 | P: 0.01 | S: 0.03 | Si: 0.18 | Cu: 0.24 | Cr: 0.07 | Mo: 0.02 | Ni: 0.07 | Sn: 0.010 | V: 0.002 | Cb/Nb: 0.015

That came from a CSX/Amtrak rail bed.
----------------------------------------------------

C Anderson
manufactured by a company called 'UnitRail', and is what's called a 'Rail Anchor'. After calling the manufacturer (mine have part numbers on them I referenced) I learned that they are basically a pure 1060 steel with little to no trace alloys.

[viking-sword]

Hello all, I live very near a RR, and now have access(and permmision)to a few hundred thousand rr spikes and plates and other parts as they just replaced about a hundred miles of rail, but I am not certain as to the identity of the clips you speak of and I was wondering if a photo of one could be posted. I tried to google for a positive ID but I was unsuccessful. Thanks, WES

[Christopher Ford]

wes, around here in the mountains we call them railroad ears, but some great info was given here for sure as to their composition.

[MattBower]

Wes, they look like this:



I continue to think of these things as 1050. I just forged a hammer eye drift out of one about a month ago. They're reasonably tough, but nothing too extreme.

I have another piece of anchor (from somone outside my area) that I'm planning to send out for testing soon, just to see if the results end up looking like the earlier ones. My contact in the lab has been off sick since this summer.

[Ed Steinkirchner]

where i am there are about 3 kinds, 2 rectanguler cross section and one j-shaped with a T-shaped cross section. the j-shaped ones are super hard and the others are pretty tough, 1050-1060 sounds right. one of the railroad workers i talked to called them creepers. i can tell you that they forge best at orange to yellow heat. ive forged tools from them plenty of times and personally i think the alloy is satisfactory for many tools when properly heat treated. as for those ones with a t-shaped CS, i still havent found a good use for them yet. i would post pictures but i am 2 hours from my shop and dont have a car. culinary school really can make it hard to get to the shop, even weekends.
dangit, rambling again.
anyway, i bet you arent getting it hot enough. that is an easy thing to do. also what is the shape of the clip?

Ed Steinkirchner

[viking-sword]

Thanks for posting the photo, it really clarified it for me. There are tons(literally) of those in massive piles down at the tracks waiting to be picked up and hauled off and it don't look like there in any hurry to do so. I'll aquire "a few" this weekend after dark as the RR crew boss prefers I do it this way so the general public doesn't get the impression the can help themselves to just anything(common curtesy you know)! I have just been able to get back to these forums lately having been in and out of hospitals for the last year, I'm back to trying to make a living at blacksmithing and custom knifemaking. Have lots of photo's to share but it takes time as I still use a 35mm camera and the film must be sent off clear across the state to be developed and converted to digital, (maybe Santa will be good to me this year). Anyway thanks again for the photo, looks like good stock for tool making, maybe hawks and blades too. Wes

[wedwards]

Thanks for posting the photo, it really clarified it for me. There are tons(literally) of those in massive piles down at the tracks waiting to be picked up and hauled off and it don't look like there in any hurry to do so. I'll aquire "a few" this weekend after dark as the RR crew boss prefers I do it this way so the general public doesn't get the impression the can help themselves to just anything(common curtesy you know)! I have just been able to get back to these forums lately having been in and out of hospitals for the last year, I'm back to trying to make a living at blacksmithing and custom knifemaking. Have lots of photo's to share but it takes time as I still use a 35mm camera and the film must be sent off clear across the state to be developed and converted to digital, (maybe Santa will be good to me this year). Anyway thanks again for the photo, looks like good stock for tool making, maybe hawks and blades too. Wes

It's been a long time since I've sent film off for developing. But IIRC it wouldn't take too many of those to pay for a modest but effective digital camera. Hope things are going well in the basin country.

Bill

[kevin1050]

are you sure that you are heating all the way through and not just surface heating? I know these are thick pieces but i've forged thicker with no trouble as have many others, how long are you keeping it in the forge?

We got them pretty hot. They were in the yellow range after a good soak in his gas forge. I was with a more experienced smith and we were using his 25lb little giant. They were 'J' shaped but with more bends. Next time I get some I will post pictures. They were gathered from a rail line in Maryland. The guy I got them from makes swords with them. He stated they were 1070 but they were hard to straighten.

[ThomasPowers]

I've heard so many "guesses" that were completely wrong about scrap steel alloys that I started collecting *accurate* data whenever I could find it and then post it when these topic re-occur. Most junkyard steel lists have so much bogus information in them that they are a slender reed to rely on!

So did he say how he knew it was 1070? (Had it analyzed, talked to the manufacturer, etc?)

[pike3e]

I picked a few of those up and made blades with them. I was able to make a blade that was able to pass the equivalent of the abs performance test (cut one inch sisal rope, chop 2 2x4's and still shave, then bend to 90 degrees. I am not going to guess what it is but it seems to make a decent blade steel. On a side note, I was not able to get a hamon to form, even with a water quench.

[Francis Trez Cole]

clay spencer recommended them for use in powerhammer tooling

[viking-sword]

I picked a few of those up and made blades with them. I was able to make a blade that was able to pass the equivalent of the abs performance test (cut one inch sisal rope, chop 2 2x4's and still shave, then bend to 90 degrees. I am not going to guess what it is but it seems to make a decent blade steel. On a side note, I was not able to get a hamon to form, even with a water quench.

I'd be real interested to know what sort of tempering cycle you used to get that kind of performance? Wes

[pike3e]

Wes,

Forge to shape without much regard for forging temp
Normalize in heat treat oven at 1550, 1525 and 1500 for each step and allow to air cool
Heat to 1500, soak for 10 minutes and quench in parks 50 oil
Temper 2 times at 425 for two hours each
In a cake pan with water, keep the lower 1/3 of the blade in the water and heat the spine with a regular propane torch as hot as you can get it evenly(it is hard for me to get it much past blue due to the heat sink of the water but I do rock the 1/3 in and out of the water to get it hotter)
Make a thin flat grind and then covex the edge on a slack belt.

Thanks

john

[kevin1050]

Wes,

Forge to shape without much regard for forging temp
Normalize in heat treat oven at 1550, 1525 and 1500 for each step and allow to air cool
Heat to 1500, soak for 10 minutes and quench in parks 50 oil
Temper 2 times at 425 for two hours each
In a cake pan with water, keep the lower 1/3 of the blade in the water and heat the spine with a regular propane torch as hot as you can get it evenly(it is hard for me to get it much past blue due to the heat sink of the water but I do rock the 1/3 in and out of the water to get it hotter)
Make a thin flat grind and then covex the edge on a slack belt.

Thanks

john

Thanks for that. I will try it when I am ready to heat treat.

[eric sprado]

I took the top curved section drove a nice wide chisel into it,then a bigger fuller and made a NICE leafing tool.Just straighten out the rest of clip so it can clamp in your leg vice.

[ZIG]

I'm so glad y'all reported on these clips. I actually have another 500 hundred of them. All new in the bag. And have made several things outta them. But hope make alot of tomahawks outta them.
The idea of using them for power hammer tooling slipped by me. I would figure making drifts or chisels outta them would work. But not For power hammer usage. Thanks For the heat treat protocols. They are workable and hold up rather well. But I rum outta ideas of things to make with them. Simply cause I'm just forgeing by hand. No power hammering, yet. Many ended up being used as decoy weights.
They work well for That. Ha.
interested in other items y'all have made from these particular clips. Without being wore smooth out by hand forging them. Good hawk material thought. Haven't made any knifes outta them. Yet.