Blacksmith537 Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 I have a friend that works for the railway, he wants me to make a knife out of some metal he has picked up from work. I know the properties of RR spikes, but this is springs off of couplers, and 1 1/2" pins that keep cars together. I am color blind so spark test does not work real well for me. Any suggestions as to the quality of these parts? Any particular parts to look out for? I can see the spring making some nice tooling like punches and small drifts, would like others to share there wisdom. Thanks. Tim... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MLMartin Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 just quickly forge some of the stuff down then, just a few inch's long and grind a little edge. take a some of it and quench one in water and one in oil, temper them. if nether break then stick them in the vice and give a little tap, on the side, if one snaps pretty easy then that's not the quenching medium for the steel, it would probably be the water quenched one that breaks if one does, also try and look to make sure that theres not already a stress crack in the steel before you forge it. i have made a few knives out of some type of spring clips that come off the track or maybe the car, not totally sure, but it was some piece of steel from the rail way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 you mean like: BP0011 Common Railroad Steels See blue prints link in upper right hand corner of this page... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blacksmith537 Posted February 21, 2009 Author Share Posted February 21, 2009 The artical may be self explanitory to experianced smiths, but us newbes find it a bit advanced. I do understand some of it, but need to find out more. Thanks for the reply. Tim.:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gayle Brooks Posted February 21, 2009 Share Posted February 21, 2009 (edited) just a few inch's long and grind a little edge. take a some of it and quench one in water and one in oil, temper them. I am guessing heat to non-magnetic? Also I have never heard of someone color blind not being able to do spark testing. If there is alot of tungsten wont be much spark just dark red (in that I can see it being difficult.) Otherwise its looking at the stars of the sparks, how many there are, how they break, where they break, length of their tails, etc. And using a known to see how it performs. I would give it a try if you could as well as the heat treat test. Edited February 21, 2009 by Tald the dead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blacksmith537 Posted February 22, 2009 Author Share Posted February 22, 2009 I was told to watch for diffrent colors to tell the type of metal, as well as the amount of sparks. Will try some of the sugestions posted. Thanks. Tim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rokshasa Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 the peaces of the rail way are very good qualety spring steel most likelly, almost all i use is track steel and let me tell you, its tough as far as the pin goes i cant answer you there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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