April 17, 200719 yr Railroad spikes are often mentioned as the material for making basic items at the forge, i.e. the 'ole RR SPike Knife or Tomahawk. How many different things can be made from one spike? And how do they look in reality? So the challenge is to not just list what can be made, but actually make it, photograph it, and share with the rest of us.
April 18, 200719 yr A while ago I made these for my wife. I call them railroses. They're just a variation of the "Russian Rose". --Marc
April 18, 200719 yr Real nice Marc!! I make roses too and can appreciate the work it takes using a spike. Looks like you use the same method I do to close the bottom--makes a better rose :)
April 18, 200719 yr Yeah, what I do is forge the petal section so that the end is wider than the beginning. That makes the outside petals longer. Then, after rolling, I just hold the end of the flower with my pipe tongs and it's pretty easy to neck the bottom of the flower.
April 18, 200719 yr Marc are your roses all one piece? I have a vision of bending the spike end 90 degrees and spreading/flattening the bent piece really thin, somehow making the petal shapes and then hot-rolling the whole thing. they are beautiful too!
April 19, 200719 yr Don, I'll think about the Blueprint. Might be fun. But in the meantime... They are all one piece. I flatten/spread the petals first. Then I neck down the "stem", but I leave a piece of the petal thick, the same size as the stem. It looks like an "L", with the petal piece hanging from the bottom of the "L". That leaves me a thick enough piece to bend straight and then wrap the petals around it. Maybe I can get to a BP this weekend, but the weather is supposed to clear up. I need to spend some time outside. I'm in NH and it's been pretty wet the past week.
April 19, 200719 yr Marc, nice work, and I am curious to see what others can make with rr spikes. My last attempt was to make a door knocker with a leaf spring backplate and a tennoned spike using the eye of the spring as the pivot point, but it ended up in the scrap pile after overworking the spike which eventually broke. Maybe it is time to give it another try ;)
April 19, 200719 yr Yeah, what I do is forge the petal section so that the end is wider than the beginning. That makes the outside petals longer. Then, after rolling, I just hold the end of the flower with my pipe tongs and it's pretty easy to neck the bottom of the flower. Hey, after 10 roses I just figured this one out. Making the outer petals wider than the inner ones. I've been doing a faggot weld on the end of my rose rod to give me that width. How do you get that nice rounded shape at the bottom of the outer petals?
April 20, 200719 yr The tomahawk was made from a 9/16" spike, smaller than the normal 5/8" spike. It actually came from a rail road in Alaska that was laid for when they found some gold up there. Excuse the loose and dry knot. :p
April 21, 200719 yr How do you get that nice rounded shape at the bottom of the outer petals? Michael, after it's straightened and rolled, I grab the flower tip with large bolt or V-bit tongs and then round it down like I would round the end of a pipe. I start it on the near edge of the anvil, which, on mine, is ground with about a 1/4" radius.
April 24, 200719 yr t murch! You are all that is black smith! when i grow up can i be like you?Edit: We don't charge per letter so it is ok to spell things out.
May 18, 200719 yr I actually made this as a trade item for a BAM meeting that was scheduled for last Saturday. However the meeting was canceled so that we could all attend the funeral services of Doug Hendrickson.
May 22, 200719 yr That door knocker is great BT. Plus I just got a couple of spikes from the father-in-law's future rail road tie garden supply this weekend, with more to come! Not certain I could get the face on it, but it is now on the project list.
July 21, 200718 yr I do home inspections for income. Due to this, I meet a lot of people and get to see a lot of new ideas for smithing and forge-art. I recently looked at a house and the owner had a small wall covered in various crosses from around the world. One of them was a couple of RR spikes arc-welded into a cross shape. I told the owner that if I was in the area, I would drop off one of the crosses I like to make. I haven't been to her neighborhood lately, but I did do this one in case I do. Becasue of the size of my forge, once I opened the sides of the cross, I could no longer fit it in the forge. It had to be the last thing done.
July 26, 200718 yr i'm not gonna lie those spike knives and tomahawk are pretty xxxx cool, ingenious design. be proud!
August 7, 200718 yr Iwas thinking that with the proper eye placement one could make a small straight/cross peen with a spike.I'm in the middle of making a tack hammer out of one .its going good so far.also thinking of a dishing hammer with the spike head as the hammer face as it is already rounded. Will post pics when I can.
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