Does anybody know what type of steel railroad tie plates are made of? 

Through my research, Ive found that it's most likely 1050. And to be honest Im still new enough at all this to not really know if that's good or not. I know it won't be as hard as good knife steel like 1080 or 1095; but would it still be decent steel to work with?

2 hours ago, SkoobyNewb said:

but would it still be decent steel to work with?

Key question: decent for what? Knifemaking? Decorative railings? Guillotine tools? Nails?

(Probably not nails.)

If it is 1050 that would be a very useful steel, but getting it into a form that you can make something out of will be a little difficult unless you have a power hammer.  

Where did you come by the 1050 spec for tie plates? That sounds pretty rich for the use but I don't have the specs handy. I believe Thomas has several sites for RR steel specs.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

On 11/11/2016 at 10:06 PM, JHCC said:

Key question: decent for what? Knifemaking? Decorative railings? Guillotine tools? Nails?

(Probably not nails.)

Anything really, most likely knife making or something decorative I could use as a Christmas gift . 

On 11/12/2016 at 1:15 AM, Frosty said:

Where did you come by the 1050 spec for tie plates? That sounds pretty rich for the use but I don't have the specs handy. I believe Thomas has several sites for RR steel specs.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

With looking at several different forums and sites the only one I heard quoted was 1050

1 hour ago, SkoobyNewb said:

With looking at several different forums and sites the only one I heard quoted was 1050

 BP0011 - Common Railroad Steels  says that a grade 1 tie plate has 0.15% C. 

1 hour ago, JHCC said:

 BP0011 - Common Railroad Steels  says that a grade 1 tie plate has 0.15% C. 

Thanks, Im wondering where the others got their info.

The thing is (and I am speaking from experience here), unless you have a pretty powerful forge and a power hammer, tie plates are simply too thick and unwieldy for most forging. Cutting them down mechanically to manageable sizes can take a lot of time and consumables that are much better used for other purposes. The things that I have personally found tie plates most useful for have been welding projects that take advantage of their size, shape, and mass.

 You're going to do much better and get faster, more satisfactory results by starting with stock that is a lot closer to your desired end product. There are many, many decorative projects that can be made from, for example, railroad spikes (there is a whole thread on IFI that's devoted to such) or similarly sized stock. 

 As for knifemaking, you will do much, much better to work with known steels whose chemical compositions and heat treating procedures are well known. There are places where you can order knifemaking steel online; see elsewhere on the forum for more information. If you insist on using scrap, buy yourself some insurance by using steel with a much higher likelihood of being suitable for knives: springs, lawnmower blades, old files and rasps, etc. As with all mystery steel, though, be prepared for heat treatment to be a crap shoot. With old springs in particular, be aware that there may be hidden stress cracks that might not reveal themselves until your knife is practically finished. Save yourself the heartbreak, and use new stock.

But do hang onto that tie plate. I'm sure it will come in handy sooner or later.

 By the way, where are you in New Hampshire? And have you linked up with the New England ABANA affiliate yet? 

3 hours ago, JHCC said:

 By the way, where are you in New Hampshire? And have you linked up with the New England ABANA affiliate yet? 

I haven't yet, my father has though; he goes to the open forges they host. I've gotten alot of tips from him. Unfortunately for me, those events are on a day i work, so I haven't had the chance . 

Thanks JHCC; I was wondering too but can't seem to find my copy of the RR steel folder.   I would have checked one with a quench test; but probably not till this weekend.

I incorporated some pieces of tie plate into my anvil stand, and I have another tooling project in the works that centers on some welded-up chunks. I'll be posting pics if it goes well.

Did you have to preheat and post heat the welds to prevent HAZ cracking like a higher carbon steel or did they work fine as they were (like a low carbon steel)?

3 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

Did you have to preheat and post heat the welds to prevent HAZ cracking like a higher carbon steel or did they work fine as they were (like a low carbon steel)?

They worked fine. Of course, I'm a pretty crappy welder, so it would be kind of hard to tell anyway....

The proof of the pudding is in the eating.  If you are not getting HAZ cracking with low grade welding you are welding low carbon.

I myself am much better welding with the forge than with the arc welder.  I try to have a couple of personal projects to "relearn" on before working on a project for a customer and NEVER DO CRITICAL WELDING!

Addendum: I did some welding today of on a new project (which I'll put in a separate post once I take some good photos) that incorporated parts of two different tie plates, one much older than the other. I haven't done any lab testing, but they sparked very differently: the older one had fewer streams with fewer bursts, but clearly steel and not WI. Lots of sparks with the newer one.

Everything welded up beautifully, though, with no cracking in the HAZ. I seem getting better at MIG, too.