Alternative to the well known railroad spike knife

[TechnicusJoe]

Mostly directed at the enthusiastic beginners smiths amongst us.

The well known railroad spike is a raw material to many and I'd like to provide a different kind of alternative
than stake flippers, bottle openers or anything with a cutting edge.

A railroad spike has a lot of material in it and many things can be made of it.
If you're a beginner smith and need tongs, why not make tongs of these spikes?
Of course there are better choices of steels for tongs, but it's not bad.
They will work and do the job.

Forging flat nib tongs.

 

Forging bolt tongs.

 

[JME1149]

Joe,

Thanks for the inspiration, I always enjoy seeing what you are going to do next with railroad spikes. This is now on my list of projects to try in the near future.

[redd1981]

Do you think there is enough material to draw out and make a fire poker with a single spike?

[ThomasPowers]

more than enough for a forge fire poker not nearly enough for a fireplace fire poker, Borderline for a woodstove fire poker depending on the stove, not enough for a bonfire fire poker, may or may not for a campfire fire poker and plenty for a charcoal gill fire poker.  Please try to be specific with your questions.

[redd1981]

Sorry I meant fireplace poker.

[ThomasPowers]

As I like my pokers well able to lift and pry logs in the fireplace I prefer my pokers to be heavier stuff than what even a double spike could provide. (spikes are made as doubles with each end headed and then cut in the middle)

[Frosty]

I like a heavier poker for the fire place too so it sounds like you need to weld two spikes together, that should be enough. Point to point and they're almost perfectly scarfed for a lap weld and being what it is spike steel is pretty straight forward to weld.

A good time for a little practice eh?

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

my wife likes small light pokers, in fact she lifted one of my forge coal rakes to use in our woodstove it's made from 1/4" sq stock. Of course our wood stove is a side load so you don't need much to access the entire firebox.

[redd1981]

Frosty are you talking about forge welding? I Know nothing about welding with a welder. and all I know about forge welding is what I have read and watched on youtube I havent tried it yet.

 I did buy some borax for flux but was wanting to wait until I had a little more control before I tried it. But the way I want to make a poker would require forge welding anyway so maybe I will give it a shot the next weekend.

 

 

[Frosty]

Funny how that works. Our side load Jotul (pronounced like yodel with a T) has my coal rake for a stove tool too. Though I think I made it from 3/8" sq.

Good timing Redd, your post loaded just as I was about to hit send.

Yes, forge welding. RR spikes are thick enough mistakes aren't going to permanently damage the project. The points will only need a LITTLE reshaping to be perfectly scarfed to weld. then it's just shine the joint surfaces up, flux gently, wire them together and put them in the fire. They'll take soak time so don't crank the fire hard till it's been in the low yellow for a couple minutes.

Lots of folk wire brush at orange heat, wire and flux but I've seen too much scale form really FAST at lower than orange heat so I don't try to fight an ongoing process. If you match the joint contact surfaces, shine them up, dust them with flux and wire it shut before it reaches a highly reactive temperature where scale forms almost instantly the flux melts and scale doesn't form at all. Welding becomes surprisingly easy. I make a forge weld a first session technique for new students, beating out the mystique surrounding forge welding <GASP!!> really gives the kids confidence to make mistakes of a lesser nature.

Frosty The Lucky.

[redd1981]

Thanks for the tips. when you say shine them up flux and wire are you referring to doing these steps while cold and then letting slowly soak to yellow?

[redd1981]

Joe I just wanted to apologize for hijacking your thread. I had subscribed to your youtube channel before I even joined I forge. and I will never forget you pointing to me and telling me I didnt need to use flux either haha. Im just so curious about things I forget to start a new thread about it.

 

[Frosty]

Yes. I forge the joint so the join faces are closely matched then take my belt sander to them if I can. I then put a light coat of flux on them, dampening them with water or say 3 in 1 oil will stick the flux nicely. Then I wire the joint together. You can notch the outside corners so the wire doesn't slip if necessary. Once it hits orange heat it is a good idea to flux it again just in case.

When it's to heat and soaked a while set the weld with a reasonably heavy hammer but as close to a dead blow as you can manage. Don't give it a big hard old smack, you can bounce the sides apart or cause them to shear sideways.

Joe uses a coal forge and has a lot of experience with fire management so the joint will be in the heart but above the oxidizing region. I primarily use my propane forge and have never tried a fluxless weld though I have melted stock so maybe.

Frosty The Lucky.

[redd1981]

wow thank you I was going to ask you if it was ok to make a paste or something with the flux since it would just fall off with the steel being cold.. Also wont the steel wire melt before the spikes get to yellow because of how thin it is?

And yes I have seen how well he is able to do this. He is probably the only one I see doing it on youtube.

[Frosty]

Mixing borax with water is an old jewelers method for making soldering fluxes. Just don't leave the joint wet long enough for it to rust and it works fine. The water will evaporate long before it can effect anything.

I don't recall if you told us what kind of forge you use but iron wire has been used to bind joints to weld for as long as wire has been available. Well, I THINK it has that is. Don't take the forge to to high a heat till the stock's close welding heat and gentle it hotter. If the wire burns off then don't get it so hot so fast next time.

Soft iron wire will have about the same melting temperature as the spikes so if you're burning it off, the forge temp is much hotter than you need to weld. One of the most important tricks is to make sure the joint is hot all the way through so a fire just at welding temp and leaving it to soak a long time is preferable to hot and fast. Steady wins the race.

Forge welding is like algebra, follow the steps and show your work. Okay, so maybe the steps are different. Be picky, go ahead. <grin>

Frosty The Lucky.