ok a while back my dads boss was digging up his yard and found all sorts of interesting stuff from when a sugar cane railroad ran though our town (his house was actually the turnaround) and he gave me some RR spikes and a car axle, well i forged the spikes into knives and just recently i decided to sand them on my new belt sander and i noticed some lines in the steel so i sanded it to 400 grit and etched it and saw a bunch of layers and thin black lines that look like slag inclusions in steel, and i was wondering if these could be wrought iron or if it is just from being buried for over 50 years. the railroad i believe was built in the 1910's or earlier. also the car axle doesnt show any of these lines and was presumably buried at around the same time. if these arent wrought then what caused the patterns and lines.

The spikes might well be wrought iron. Spark test to see. Wrought iron yields a very low spark stream colored orange - dimmer and less in number than mild steel. Grind a file, then your axle, followed by a piece of known mild steel and finally your wrought iron specimen. Compare the sparks and you'll have an idea of what it might be.

thanks H actually while grinding i did notice that the sparks seemed different than anything else i have ground but i didnt notice the layers until recently. ill have to go ask for some more of these spikes :)