Jonathan William Perry Posted May 9, 2017 Share Posted May 9, 2017 There is one thing we hear as blacksmiths. STAY OFF THE RAILROAD TRACKS. But there are some of us who don't listen. The railroad tracks are a goldmine for smiths looking for specifically sized steel. One of the best things to make from steel from the railroad is tongs. A good set of flat nib tongs can be made from two spikes. What I prefer to do is use something less commonly found on the tracks. These pieces of steel look similar to a hold fast and are used in the crossing. Look for when the track is replaced and these things are very easy to find. Using one of these pieces makes an amazing set of tongs make sure nobody is looking at the crossing on a backroad and get you guys some amazing steel. BEWARE TAKING ITEMS FROM THE RR TRACKS IS A FEDERAL OFFENSE CONSULT A RR TRACK WORKER JUST AS I HAVE DONE. -JWP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaughnT Posted May 9, 2017 Share Posted May 9, 2017 Um..... no. If you're looking for "specifically sized steel", go to the Tractor Supply Co., Lowe's, Home Depot, or your local metal supply store. They sell steel in all the common sizes, and they have bunches of it. The best part is that it's a reliable source that you know will have what you want. By the time you find that "crossing on a backroad" and "make sure nobody is looking"..... you could just as easily have gone to the store and gotten several feet of new metal that's infinitely better than railroad spikes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted May 9, 2017 Share Posted May 9, 2017 Many steel suppliers have "drop bins" where you can get the offcuts from bigger jobs at a significant discount. If you are willing to be flexible on what dimensions you're looking for, you can get just what you need without paying Big Box Store prices or committing a federal offense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 11, 2017 Share Posted May 11, 2017 Go 6 miles north of my shop to the Scrapyard. they had a lot of sucker rod there last Saturday at 20 cents a pound and a much better alloy for tongs than RR spike in my opinion! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan William Perry Posted May 21, 2017 Author Share Posted May 21, 2017 I cross the tracks everyday wasn't wanting to start an argument. @VaughnT And it's just laying there and I don't like spending money so it's easier to pick free stuff up than lay money down. But if you have it on trees by all means go to TSC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted May 21, 2017 Share Posted May 21, 2017 Jonathan drives right over the tracks every day so why shouldn't he go scrounging? So what if it's a federal offense and he blithely announces the crime on an internationally read forum. What's it to you Vaughn you just an old poop or something? You don't want to see someone go to jail for no good reason do you? Ah, only the smart ones learn from other peoples mistakes. Some gotta make their own. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 21, 2017 Share Posted May 21, 2017 I myself try not to admit to felonies on an open forum; I'm just weird that way! I've also learned after a misspent youth that *asking* has resulted in more and better stuff over the long term. Nothing quite as sweet as "Sure you can have that stuff and I have a bunch of old tools in the basement I've been meaning to have hauled off; would you be interested in them?" (and that is a literal quote). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anachronist58 Posted May 21, 2017 Share Posted May 21, 2017 On 05/09/2017 at 9:45 AM, Jonathan Pinkston said: There is one thing we hear as blacksmiths. Stay off the tracks Sonny Boy, or at least don't encourage your fellow juveniles to do the same. Robert Taylor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan William Perry Posted May 22, 2017 Author Share Posted May 22, 2017 Sort I have gotten you all confused. I have gotten permission from the RR to collect a minimum amount of items. Yes it's a federal offense if you don't have permission. And I do it when no one is looking because I could me mistaken for someone taking materials illegally. I must stress again I haves gotten permission from several people that are in charge of taking care of the used material once they are taken off the tracks. And they said I have permission to take what I like within reason. I HAVE PERMISSION But yes it is a danger to be on the tracks at all. But I am always at the track dump store where they dump the used materials until it is picked up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 22, 2017 Share Posted May 22, 2017 Remember everything we post is not just for you but for the myriad of other people reading here. So sometimes special cases get overridden by the general! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted May 22, 2017 Share Posted May 22, 2017 Do you have permission in writing? I've had line crews say "Sure help yourself," more than once. But you'd better have permission in writing by someone from the front office if a RR cop spots you. I've talked to RR cops too. It's something else again if the line crew guys toss stuff into your pickup the RR cop will have things to say to THEM. Unfortunately anymore it's not safe to get noticed with old RR materials in your yard if you don't have documentation for it. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orgtwister Posted May 26, 2017 Share Posted May 26, 2017 By all means always have it in writing I had a issue about 6 months ago were doing a demo job on a old mill this place covered about 40 Acres and it had tracks run all through the place I have about 20 ft of 5 foot sections Plenty of spikes Railroad parts and its all 100 year old stuff I had pictures were we removed the stuff and a letter from job for man and a copy of a letter okay them to scrap any railroad tracks and stuff on the property and the funny part is there's not even a railroad that runs there for 10 miles any more and its all small gauge rail and I was stopped by a cop that in turned called someone from rr who weeks later showed to my house it was OK but a pain in the xxxx but the letters and pics made the difference Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 26, 2017 Share Posted May 26, 2017 *Well* *Done*! I used to have a bunch of 5' pieces of RR rail that came off an old cattle guard. A friend used to gift me a piece every time I visited him and in turn I've passed it on to new smiths over the years. Orgtwister; I graduated from Holmdel Highschool in NJ and really miss going down to ocean and eating good seafood. Now the TexMex we get here is tops for that kind of thing but seafood in the desert I pass on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Francis Trez Cole Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 Rail road spikes do make good tongs. I was once was given advice "look at what the other tong makers are using" Most use 1045. it is available through. Make tongs out of mild steel to get you skills down then use good metal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 RR spikes are Mild steel---well right on the border between mild and medium. Most my friends use sucker rod which is generally a medium carbon steel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 I've made four pairs of tongs so far: two from RR spikes, and two from mild steel flat bar from the steelyard. They all work just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 They used to be made from dead soft real wrought iron. Old tongs were often quite heavily built for an expected use life of decades of hard use. I much prefer modern light springy tongs as I'm already past the age that many folks used to stop work and stop breathing by. (Look at why "65" was chosen as the "retirement age"!) Modern tongs are often medium carbon to make they strong when light; but then gaining the issues that they can become brittle and break if you quench them when hot---unlike the old tongs! Shoot you can even buy tongs made from titanium! (I forged a set for myself and then bought a commercial pair at Quad-State for US$10, fellow had them in a pile of grungy "$10 tongs") Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockstar.esq Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 On 5/26/2017 at 5:47 PM, ThomasPowers said: but seafood in the desert I pass on. That has me wondering if some enterprising soul is trying to rebrand scorpions as "locally sourced lobster"... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 There is a tale from the Trinity site that one of the guards asked "where all the crawdads were coming from"; they were scorpions... Had a pretty good sized one in the bathroom sink last week. I put it out in a local cactus garden. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted July 14, 2017 Share Posted July 14, 2017 Doth are aracnida or aracnoid bugs. I wonder what scorpion tastes like? Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 14, 2017 Share Posted July 14, 2017 Like Eurypterids I'd guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desmond Redmon Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 Left coast, right coast thing. In the flyovers we call the local RR co and ask if we can get permission to walk the RR track and pick up old spikes, their response was stop by the office to pick up a schedule and give us a shout if you find more than one missing per plate while you're out looking. BUT if you are going to cross from the road to the tracks CALL them FIRST. No $2 spike is worth seeing what a 100,000 ton train will do to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted August 20, 2017 Share Posted August 20, 2017 This past week, a business trip was taking me near where I knew there would be a substantial pile of RR spikes sitting next to the track. Through a friend who works for the legal department at Conrail, I got hold of the local maintenance office at Norfolk Southern (who owns that particular stretch) and asked for permission to salvage. This was their reply: "Unfortunately I was told that the pile of spikes you called about, is already spoken for. When a large section of ties are replaced, all of the related material is to be picked up by a contracted service. NS then receives credit for the materials which can be applied towards future work." Interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted August 20, 2017 Share Posted August 20, 2017 I could tell you what scorpion tastes like, but I would get a letter from Glenn... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted August 20, 2017 Share Posted August 20, 2017 I'm guessing it's not just like chicken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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