six months ago I heard about railroad spike knives. I made one on a cheap anvil from princess auto. And before I knew it there was a forge and a while shop required !:) used applewood for the handle. Since the pics though I broke the handle and one sure it was cause the tangs wasn't square so the wood saw too many forces. Got its all flattened out and gonna replace it with jatoba

Nice knife, have a large saw blade that I am cutting up for parts and I think I need to look at making one of these.

It's swings nice.

Looks good I like the wood handle on it.

What are the knife's dimensions? 

Dayne your work deserves better materials..RR spikes are too low a carbon for good blade performance. High carbon steel forges a little differently but you will not have trouble. Pay attention to heat treat and make really nice knives that perform as good as they look...Keep at it in the shop....

So it turns out I missed these posts.  Thanks for the words of encouraging wisdom.  I started a new job as an arborist apprentice and haven't had much time for forging.  I still have that 4140 sitting in my garage, waiting to be made into proper hand tools.  

And it's blade is maybe about 9 inches long.  Handle would be about 5 ish