Rail Road Spike Tamohawk/Ax?

T

thompsonblades

Joined
Dec 25, 2009
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409
Has anybody seen any good designs for tamohawks made from rail road spikes? I've got a whole box full of the rail road spikes and wanted to try making a couple of hawks from them, but I need a good design to work with.
 
We have made some. We usually weld a bit of some kind in the spike as they are around 1030 for the HC spikes. You can use Rob Gunters Super Quench and it will harden the spikes pretty well. They flat scream in that super quench. heres a couple pics of a RR spike hawk using the head as the poll. It has a 1095(actually 1095 with added carbon. About 1.22%) bit welded in the beard. One very important thing. You must UPSET the spike a good inch to have enough material for a decent blade. You can still see the file teeth in the etch and in a couple of rough forged areas.
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Heres one with a damscus bit..You can also try anvilfire.com and iforgeiron.com. Lots of guys there use railroad spikes for different things..We sell a butt load of spike knives to retired railroad workers and such. I live slap in the heart of coal country so we are covered up with tracks and yards..
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Rail spikes are real soft, yes?

Have any of you ever forged one out, put an edge on and then case hardened it?
 
Very nice Stuart!! as always ;) Very clean which isnt easy to do with railroad spike hawks..
 
Yes rr spikes are soft but with a bit of a quench can be made to a working edge. I like em because they work and touch up with a file easily.
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George...........
 
Yeah, just thought it'd look cook with a bone and charcoal case hardening.

The purpose of case hardening was to give a hard exterior with most of the metal able to withstand a good shock. It'd make the edge last longer, yet get the toughness of the soft steel.
 
ive used a really strong brine to quench some rr spike knives. several cups of salt to about a half gallon of warm water. not too scientific but it has worked surprisingly well. works on knives made from horseshoes as well.
 
What size do they end up at, I have only seen small spikes, I have about 5 of them and they look way to small to forge a hawk.

Richard
 
George- The hawk with the pick on it: Did you weld a bitt into that, or were you able to draw the edge out that much? I made one similar a while back by cutting off the ears of the head and forming the bitt from the head while drawing the point out to a long, crved spike. I can't remember having that much steel to work with, so if you didn't weld it, you must be one peening cat.
Either way, that is one good-looking bearded spike tomahawk!
 
Thanks Shortdog,
No welding was used , its all from the head of the spike.

Tinbasher, the spikes I use Are 5/8ths sq.
I bump them up to about 1 inch to get enugh metal to make about a 2-1/2 inch edge on average.
 
g.a.m.t.g.f said:
Thanks Shortdog,
No welding was used , its all from the head of the spike.

Tinbasher, the spikes I use Are 5/8ths sq.
I bump them up to about 1 inch to get enugh metal to make about a 2-1/2 inch edge on average.
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How do you "bump them up"? Just heat up the tip end, line it up vertically on an anvil and strike on the head?
 
thompsonblades said:
How do you "bump them up"? Just heat up the tip end, line it up vertically on an anvil and strike on the head?
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More or less, you've got it. Heat and drive from the end. It pays to cool all but the part that you're upsetting so that it doesn't bend so much during the process. Strike from the end and straighten. Heat and repeat. You may have to do a little hammering to get your diameter even afterwards, but it's cool. Amazing how much you can grow a piece of steel doing this.
 
First of all, yes, I know its ugly, but I was running out of daylight. Anyways, here is my first truly successfull attempt to forge a throwing hawk out of a rail road spike. It still needs some work. The blade is not parallel with the handle and the beard curves down too far. Also, one side of the eye is starting to crack. It still throws pretty well though. I'll need to make a different handle for it, I can tell already. Still, I'm not totally dissatisfied with it. I'll tinker with it some more later, but right now, my arm feels like jello. I probably need to get a power hammer or something before I try again. So far, its taken me 5 hours to get this far, most of it taken up with trial and error, mostly error. I will admit I did use a power drill to start the eye, about 1/8 inch, but after that one hole, it was just a lot of pounding.

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nothing wrong with giving yourself a bit of a liftoff with a hole drilled. when your arm feels like jello, you may need to get a smaller or larger hammer. i dont know your level of experience but trial and error is a lot of it. i can pounded out a blank for one of these in an hour or so without the beveling. good luck brother.
 
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heres a spikehawk head i had made...hafting I did myself, but gives an idea of just what can be done.
 
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