How do I harden old railroad spikes?

[Turbo Dog]

Don't sweat it out, I'm not jumping into building a forge without due diligence in researching it.  I have used a forge in a college metal working class where we melted the metals to do a sand casting of bronze.  Just haven't built one from scratch.

Pretty much wore out my available railroad spikes with last nights grading so hopefully this weekend I will be doing the welding to mount the bucket teeth.

[George N. M.]

Dear Turbo Dog,

I am in the process of moving to Laramie.  Once I get my shop set up you are welcome to come over and pound hot iron.

You may be surprised how hard super quench will harden RR spikes.  Did you pick them up along the old Laramie, Foxpark, and Western RR to Centennial and Walden, CO?

When coal furnaces and stoves were common every child knew what clinkers were because they had to haul them out.  Now, the term is about as common as buggy whip terms.

 

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[ThomasPowers]

The older the spike the lower the carbon content in general and the "old" ones won't do much even with super quench in my experience.  However there is more to a good blade than hardness; hard to get many carbides in the edge when there isn't any extra carbon!

[Turbo Dog]

21 hours ago, George N. M. said:

Dear Turbo Dog,

I am in the process of moving to Laramie.  Once I get my shop set up you are welcome to come over and pound hot iron.

Thanks very much, Laramie is a nice quiet town without much trouble going on.  Let me know when you are ready and I'll stop by.  My wife runs the Golden Prairie Bakery a few miles west of town, you are also welcome to stop by.  I did find some railroad spikes so I'll try to not wear them all down to soon, although I just modified the harrow to carry twice as much weight.