Railroad spike knife.

[Slingblade]

Been a while, i made this today with my dad
on my new brake drum forge. Far from done.

[caintuckrifle]

Looks pretty good from where I sit, one suggestion: clean up the jaws of your twisting wrench (or whatever you are using) and you won't get those marks in the back.

[BCROB]

I like it !!

keep it raw like that , not great knives but great novelty items , I sell quite a few , nicely done !! 

[Slingblade]

Yea that was my plan, just makin it to
look at. Thanks.

[Frosty]

While I'm not a fan of RR spike, knife shaped objects I readily admit they sell well and can be excellent projects, I just call them letter openers but that's a personal thing. <wink>

 

A couple little tips I've found generally useful.

 

I do the twist first then forge the rest down. It makes the transition from twist to the remainder smooth and more natural looking. It also prevents over heating thin sections to twist thick.

 

That leads to a more fundamental rule of thumb. Forge the thick sections first and work to the thinnest. You will NOT burn a section 5/8" thick, your twisted handle on a spike knife, planishing a blade under 1/4" thick. Do the reverse, bringing the 5/8" thick sq. stock to twisting temp can indeed burn the snot out of the blade.

 

When you twist you must keep in mind the final profile, especially if you have a finial feature to coordinate with. Whether it's a scroll, a leaf or in this case a spike head you need to remember where it's going to be when the twist is finished. Keeping count of the twists is good or in the case of my other technique, of twisting THEN forging the piece you need to plan for the finished profile. How many turns there are in a twist makes a real difference in the final look.

 

Straighten twisted sections on a wood block with a wood mallet. I buy wooden baseball bats at yard/garage/etc. sales for making mallets and sheet metal forming hammers.

 

Glad to see you again, keep at it.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[mitch4ging]

Nice looking. Bill Epps goes through the process like Frosty describes about the twist first, but he ends the twist 45° off angle (on the bias) so the corner of the spike is the start of the blade edges.

[Slingblade]

This is the finished product, sold it .

[Frozenshrimp]

Slingblade Very nice!! mitch4gings suggestion of starting you blade on the bias after you do your twist is a easy way to start cause it make it easier (for me) to get the blade shape. imoa   Keep up the good work.