Made a shoe horn from a railroad spike.  It works really great.  I was going for a forged-to-finish look.  On my last heat I brushed it really well to remove scale and quenched it to toughen it some.  Only grinding I did was around the edges to shape it a little better and drilled a hole to put a leather thong in.  Then I sanded it with some fine sandpaper to finish it up.  

First attempt with improvements to come.  Fun project and something that will get used every day and last a lifetime.  

That's great.