Railroad Spikes as guard material?

JG Custom Metal Works

JG Custom Metal Works

Joined
Nov 27, 2013
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Damn guard material is expensive. Would railroad spike steel(1040 iirc) suffice as guard material?

I was thinking I could even upset it a bit to thicken it up some.

Is it possible to heat treat it at all or is it even worth it?

Any other ideas about what RR spikes could be used for? Obviously the carbon content(even with the "high carbon" ones) is way too low for blade steel.
 
People use mild steel all the time for guards and fittings. Pretty much every other fitting metal is softer than mild steel anyways (brass, nickel silver, copper, wrought iron, etc). Nothing wrong with using railroad spikes on principle. Although it is only on the order of magnitude of $20 for a bar of stainless steel, so I think it's a false economy to try and cheap out with salvaged material. I definitely think you could make pretty cool guards with RR spikes. I know one guy who made bottle openers out of them, they're useful for a bunch of other general blacksmithing projects.
 
Hot-blued carbon steel guards look really nice. Especially when they're taken to a really fine finish first... they look sort of like "black chrome". :cool: :thumbup:

I'd be surprised if RR spikes are 1040. I do know that several blacksmiths make RR spike knives and HT them with SuperQuench... they get 'em up in the mid-high 40's Rc. That should be a good hardness for a guard or pommel. Hard enough to resist scratching but very tough.

I believe plain 1018 (not "welding steel" from the hardware store, that stuff is junk) would get up into the 40's with SQ, too. It's pretty inexpensive and available in various bars, rounds, hex shapes, etc.

Or if you have a bunch of blade steel scraps, why not use that? Just temper it back more than the blade.
 
@Neil- I hear ya on cheaping out. My problem is I never cheap out on things so when I come up with a new project idea I don't have any money left to fund it. :D The bottle opener idea is cool, hadn't thought of that.

@James- Thanks for the intel James! I plan on doing some experimenting with spikes and will try and report back to this thread with my findings.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it!
 
If you have any kind of steel supplier near you, even Fastanal, ask em for "cold rolled" steel.
It's made in a lot of the smaller standard sizes, and is about a 1018, and made to much cleaner standards than "mild steel" or welding steel.
No telling what you're getting with RR spikes, but it should still work fine for what you're doing.
 
If you have a handful of spikes to tinker with, go for it. Cut the heads off and use them for the pommels. Worst case scenario, it's just 5/8" mild steel. I wouldn't bother with buying new spikes for the metal content, but you can certainly use whatever you have laying around. Heck, I've used lawnmower and edger blades for spacers and guards just because there were sitting in the scrap pile turning to rust. Why let that happen when you can forge them into spatulas and knife parts?!?!
 
No telling what you're getting with RR spikes
Click to expand...
I recently found this site, which lists the chemical comp of their spikes: http://www.zocindustrial.com/product/railroad-spike/
Low carbon, fairly high manganese... might be useful for low carbon damascus for fittings, judging by the manganese content it should etch fairly dark.

Of course, that is only one of many suppliers of spikes, who knows what others are made of...
 
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