(Another) First RR Spike Knife

[Private Entrance]

First complete knife for me. Standard railroad spike, full twist for the handle, spike head beaten into something that vaguely resembles a pommel. Blade forged into a rough shape and then fine-tuned with bench grinder, files, stones and sandpaper. Not anywhere close to perfect, but I'm pretty pleased with the fact that it at least vaguely looks like a knife. ;)

Neighbor came over to see what all the noise and smoke was about, and bought it off the forge table before I had it finished. Also the first thing I've done that I've actually received money for. Got enough to buy a sack of coal and a length of 3/8" x 3/4" to make more tongs with.



Any tips for improving the next one would be appreciated.

[Tim McCoy]

Well done - profit is a great motivator!!

[Kwisatz]

Nice work! I like your pommel. I may do something like that for my next few. Glad to hear you turned it into more blacksmithing resources. I need to get around to making tongs as well. Will you be making more RR spike blades?

[RPJR]

Looks pretty good to me. I'm thinking of trying something like that. I hope it will turn out as good as yours did.

[Drewed]

3/8 x 3/4 is going to be way to big for tongs.,,,

THe knife looks like a good start

[Private Entrance]

Kwisatz, I will be making more knives in the future. I posted this pic on Facebook and have had a couple of requests for them, and I'm going to try my hand at that perennial favorite, RR spike tomahawks. I tested out a slitter I made on a spike, and was so surprised it worked that I put the hole in the wrong place on the spike for a 'hawk, so that one is going to become a warhammer, but the concept itself looks pretty doable.

RPJR and Drewed - Thanks! The stock I'm using actually works pretty well for tongs. It doesn't take much stock to make a pair, like 6" of stock to get each half pair of about 16-18" long, and I get a lot of practice drawing and shaping the reins that way. Using a different size would probably be easier, but I like the extra practice. I really need it. ;)




edit: corrected my math error on the amt of stock to make a pair of tongs. at least for me. :)

[Dennis Mayes]

This is awesome , I feel akin to you! RR spikes, while they are so common on the net, are so uncommon around where I live, ive made a good amount of cash on them to make tongs and many other tools I use now also. Found a coal supplier as well, and RR spikes paid for the coal supply I have in the backyard haha. Great work man!

[Private Entrance]

Know what you're saying about spikes. There's enough railroading around here that people know what they are, but they generally haven't had any in hand, much less seen anyone do anything with one.

And like the fact that they are common on the interwebs - they stay cheap that way. I think I paid about $.80 ea for the batch I bought, including shipping. TYVM!

PS - I've got a coal supplier close by, too, but he sells in bags, which is great, but I wouldn't mind finding someone that sells loose coal in bulk. I'd expect loose coal would be cheaper per pound, and I wouldn't mind having a bin with a 3 or 4 hundred pounds in it at a time.

[Dennis Mayes]

Yeah man, it's costing me about 50 dollars for 335 lbs. Isn't bad at all. Some of the clumps are as big as a football. Keeps me going for a good long while.