All About Pocket Knives

just curious if any one has one or made one from a old railroad spike ? id seen one yesterday at a flea market, looked prety good, the end that is hit with the hammer made a pummel, as it already had the head on it, then looked as if the blade part was flattened out after heated in a forge, leather wraped around for a handle, never thought about it before, but in the local flea markets here those old RR spikes are a dime a dozen, usaly boxes full sitting around cheap.

this idea is really intreeging me now, i may have to see what one of the knifes guys here on the forum might charge, or mabe do a trade to make me one !!!!!!

If you search "railroad spike knife" on e-Bay you will find quite a few and in different styles.

Railroad spikes do not have enough carbon to hold a edge very long. Even the ones marked HC only have .3 carbon and you need at least.5 carbon to work right. They polish out nice and look good but would only do for letter openers.

well so much for that idea ! LOL guess it wouldnt be worth it.

They work better for footpegs on choppers than for knives.

mike miller wrote:Railroad spikes do not have enough carbon to hold a edge very long. Even the ones marked HC only have .3 carbon and you need at least.5 carbon to work right. They polish out nice and look good but would only do for letter openers.

I would say it would all depend on the heat treat after forging. If it is brought up to 56-58 it will hold an edge just fine. There are several good knife steels that have very low carbon content.

The other posters are right on. Even the "high carbon" rr spikes are in the .4 range as far as carbon content. For reference, most knife making steels are in the .6 to 1.1 range of carbon content. That said, a HC spike will harden significantly compared to regular steel. Rockwell hardness may vary, but I'd suspect that 50 or so is possible. They won't win any cutting contests, but for a knock around knife may do OK.

I have seen on some of the other forums that there are lots of knives made from the rr spikes. Some are made from old files, saw blades, even the guard rail wires and motorcycle chains. I made a knife from an old file being careful not to heat it up past the point of where i could hold it in my hand and not get burned. It will take an edge but it doesn't hold an edge. I use it as a letter opener. A rr spike knife would be nice to have for a conversation piece.

I don't have one made from a railroad spike, but here's one made from a spike nail. My AAPK buddy Glenn was kind enough to send me this one and I have put it to work as a letter opener.

Phil