So I got a really good deal on some railroad spikes, and my son has been asking me to make him a "throwing" axe.  I took out a spike and gave it a shot yesterday.  I was planning on using the spike head as the blade end, but there is not a lot of metal there to make a decent sized axe head - does anyone make these out of railway nails?  I have thought of cutting the top of the nail in "half" and inserting a nice piece of steel in the end and welding them together to give it more material to get a good, broad blade out of it.

 

Anyway, anyone tried this? how has it worked?  Will try a google search and see what I can find, but so far you guys are my first choice to get info from! :)

 

Thanks again!

In looking at this

 

http://www.etsy.com/listing/76455554/hand-forged-railroad-spike-tomahawk

 

I guess I should just forge the "head" out of the other end of the spike?  I was hoping for a bigger edged side, but... I dunno! :)

That sounds like it would work, slitting and welding in a bit. Maybe upset the stock for the eye section or do a wrapped eye so that there was more material for the eye to support the head on the haft? Just some thoughts... Ive never worked with spikes before, although I do have a few.

there are a few of them posted in this section  too  :rolleyes:

An old post, sure he figured it out by now but there are also steps on anvilfire #12 that details how to make one as was wanted.  Here's the one I made using those steps.  I haven't cleaned it up or sharpened it at all.

This was the first ax design I had ever tried my hand at, because like you, I scored a sweet deal on some RR spikes. I found this article on anvilfire.com by Bill Epps. I upset the spike end to give myself more material to work with, then split and opened up the eye. Afterwards, I started drawing out the material using a fuller, then a cross peen, and finally a rounding hammer. Hope this helps! Here's the first one I did. Not the cleanest, but still my favorite piece I've done. I like a bearded look on stuff I forge.