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I Forge Iron

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Posted

I finished this one up this weekend. Forged out of a piece of railroad anchor, the handle is made from an old baseball bat. It ended up kinda plain Jane but feels nice in the hand.

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Posted

Railroad anchor is a piece of spring steel hammered onto the bottom of the rails. It is to keep the rail from sliding as it hits the railroad tie.

Posted

looks great, nice shape. good choice for the haft...all repurposed!

 my only concern would be the eye is round, would it be prone to turn on the haft when you start to use it.

Great looking photos by the way!

Posted

There are two different types of rail anchors on the right hand side of this photo: the squiggly "3" shape and the fat "J" shape.

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Posted
20 hours ago, TwistedCustoms said:

What is the handle length?

The handle is about 20 inches.

19 hours ago, David R. said:

What is railroad anchor? How did you harden and temper? Symmetry is excellent. Did you use swage or die?

As others have said rail anchors range from about 1040-1060 depending on the manufacturer. This one was triple normalized, hardened in canola oil, and triple tempered at 425. The body was drawn back to spring temper with a propane torch. No dies or swages used, just some grinding in between forging steps.

In defense of round eyes, viking axes were commonly made with round eyes, so were trade axes. They won't turn on the haft if you hang them right and they're strong and easy to rehang in the field. They're not great for splitting though.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

That definitely qualifies as beautiful work.  The symmetry is perfect and I like the size for general tinkering in the woods.  Maybe the handle another foot longer and you'd have a nice walking cane like they use in the Alps.

  • 3 months later...
Posted
On November 13, 2015 at 4:36 PM, navasky said:

The handle is about 20 inches.

As others have said rail anchors range from about 1040-1060 depending on the manufacturer. This one was triple normalized, hardened in canola oil, and triple tempered at 425. The body was drawn back to spring temper with a propane torch. No dies or swages used, just some grinding in between forging steps.

In defense of round eyes, viking axes were commonly made with round eyes, so were trade axes. They won't turn on the haft if you hang them right and they're strong and easy to rehang in the field. They're not great for splitting though.

I make round eye all the time, they don`t spin or turn as you might expect. i have lots of these, I`ll be trying them, i love the simplicity

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
Posted
On 3/18/2016 at 10:14 AM, WAGONJON said:

Some beautiful things are still make in Oakland! Very inspirational! Have you used it yet?

Yup it's been on a couple backpacking trips with me. Works great and even splits wood a little better than expected.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
On 4/15/2016 at 6:40 PM, Jonah k said:

Very nice hawk clean lines. Does it throw well?

Thanks. I don't plan to find out since I've spent too much time on the handle at this point to risk breaking it with a bad throw.

  • 1 month later...
Posted
On ‎4‎/‎20‎/‎2016 at 5:47 PM, navasky said:

Thanks. I don't plan to find out since I've spent too much time on the handle at this point to risk breaking it with a bad throw.

Your a wise man, very nice job.

 

Darrell

 

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