Railroad clip steel?

[Leon Husock]

Anyone know what kind of steel Pandrol railroad clips are made of? I'm talking about these:

There's a huge pile of these right by the railroad station near me. The Pandrol website just describes them as being made from "High-quality spring steel alloy", which certainly sounds good to me.

 

[coldsteelburns]

The exact alloy of those e-clips probably depends on when they were made, but here is one more recent alloy listed as them being made from, just scroll down a little and see the top of the chart on this page:

http://www.rail-fastener.com/functions-of-e-clip-railway-fastening-system.html

That site lists these two alloys used for e-clips: 60Si2MnA, 60Si2CrA


Here is the composition for the 60Si2CrA alloy, as I couldn't find the other one's specs:

http://zknives.com/knives/steels/steelchart.php?snm=60Si2CrA


I also collected a bunch years ago in Tacoma and still have them, as well as various RR spikes etc. I remember trying to forge one and it being pretty tough stuff, but that was by hand and on wobbly mounted post anvil, which probably didn't help. I do know I've seen at least a few guys make knives out from them in the past and them working well. This specific alloy listed on Z knives is also labeled as being an "Alloy spring steel, OK for large knives" (just hold your cursor over the steel designation for that bit of info).

In short, I think most e-clips will likely make a decent knife. I would probably just treat it like similarly to something like 80CrV2 (aka 1080+) or 1070 depending on which of those two listed alloys yours are made from, and then do some testing to see if it would benefit from adjustments.

~Paul
My YoutubeChannel
... (Some older vids of some of the older knives I made)

 

[A.McPherson]

One thing to remember when collecting stuff like that...

Those are the property of the railroad, it's illegal to take them.

If you see some of the employees working, you might ask permission, and tell them what you plan to do with them. They might give you a bucket load, then you wouldn't be subject to prosecution if someone gets over zealous...

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I have used them ( still have a bucket of them somewhere). They are very similar to 80CrV in working and HT.

 

[Leon Husock]

One thing to remember when collecting stuff like that...

Those are the property of the railroad, it's illegal to take them.

If you see some of the employees working, you might ask permission, and tell them what you plan to do with them. They might give you a bucket load, then you wouldn't be subject to prosecution if someone gets over zealous...

Thanks, I'd heard something to that effect. I figure I'll be okay since it's not like railroad spikes where you try to preserve the shape so they're identifiably railroad spikes (these are just round bar), as long as I don't get caught taking them.

 

[tiguy7]

Well there’s the test of legality. If you don’t get caught, no harm. Also you can alter the size and shape of the contraband so no one will be the wiser (destroy the evidence). Be selective when stealing.

 

[12345678910]

Since railroads are federally controlled, the specs are determined federally.

I read a govt report that stated all rail, clips and so on are 1080,

Spikes were defined too, but just mild.

Don't trust me, find that report yourself.

 

[Willie71]

Since railroads are federally controlled, the specs are determined federally.

I read a govt report that stated all rail, clips and so on are 1080,

Spikes were defined too, but just mild.

Don't trust me, find that report yourself.

i wouldn’t doubt that. I read before that they were 1045-1050, so I used one as the outer layer in a go Mai, with a 1085 core from a reclaimed grader blade, a layer of 15 n20, and the clip as the outer layer. All of the steel was reclaimed from the cabin, where hunters love the “Mercoal Steel”blades. The outer layer and the core ground, forged, and etched almost exactly the same. I was hoping for a three color etch, but got a 5 layer Damascus, basically.