Love the video man, like you said it takes me back. We sold a buttload of these things at craftshows over the years.. I explained to every person who bought one about the steel it was made from but not one ever cared. All they cared about was it was "made from a RR spike"... I live in Eastern,Ky which is coal country and by extension Railroad country so they were a good selling item.. In fact I bought my first "real" grinder an old Coote 2x72 way back with sales from spike knives.. I got mine from a local scrap yard that had the a scrap contract with the RR... Great video bud
Something i’ve been thinking about, (as soon as I get the 220v fixed in my shop), is forging the rough blade out of a spike, then clamping it to some copper, and running a bead of hard surfacing rod along the blade edge real fast, then grinding out the blade, just to have a semi-decent edge with minimum effort.
Thanks man! It’s not that I really needed the permission to slap somebody into oblivion, but it’s always nice when I don’t have to worry with: “better to ask for forgiveness than permission”. Your comment made me laugh! Keep up the strong work
John, just wanted to say thank you for this video and all of the others you have made. Sharing your passion and the free education you've provided has been super beneficial for my growth in my metalworking journey!
thanks for the pointers john a buddy of mine works for railroad he gave me a 5 gallon bucket of brand new spikes like 120+ in a bucket plenty to practice with thanks Mark
Excellent work John! As I’m watching I’m looking in the background of your shop and thinking “damn that’s a lot of axe heads! And it looks clean and well organized” Also looks like a beautiful area you live in. I’ve never been to the east coast, maybe one day.
Made one a few years (more than 40) ago, and heli-arked some hard face rod on the edge after profiling. Held a Good edge...! Had a 61 RC Hardness! (Yes, I'm "Old School"...! That's before they started calling it TIG Welding!). Lol
A local RR repair crew supvr not only let me have some used Ties, he also let me pick up old Spikes. I ended up with 18 Ties and a 5 gal bucket half full of spikes.
Good thing you asked. Most of the stuff laying about the tracks is garbage but you really don’t want to cross the railroad cops….not that they’re ever around.
That's how I got started also. I still sell about 20 of these a year, but I market them as letter openers, not knives. Don't want my knife customers to get the idea I don't know the difference between a spike and 1084!
Behind every great forger is a policeman usually or a queue of chancers, lol. Would it be possible to, after completing a blade and before grinding, to drill and insert ball bearings? I'm thinking that star constellations could be part of the design. Just a thought...
I'm just getting started on bladesmithing; the first knife I'm making for myself is an old leaf spring. But, I want to make a rr knife for my employee who manages the office on "forge-day" for her to wear as a utility knife when she's riding / working on / working w/ her horses. Is it worth trying to put a handle on one, since there's a chance she's going to be using this in the cold?
A much older one yes. One of my first videos but I don't think I actually did the reverse twist on that one. But if you google "Blacksmith Reverse twist Square twist Pineapple twist Rock twist Rubix twist" You'll find a million videos on how to make them
Railroads don’t like running people over, Seeing people on the tracks is unnerving to a helpless engineer There’s a lot of abandoned track, particularly old spurs owned by warehouses that converted to truck docks There’s a lot of legit steel to be found if you work on the back side of industry and understand what is a pile of company assets and what is junk in the way
Look here man.... don't shoot the messenger! I just got a call from your black tee shirt. He is really getting sick and tired of being stretched over your arms and back. He says it's getting ridiculous how often you swing hammers and keep getting bigger and bigger, even though you have a mechanical hammer available. He asked me to beg you to "CHILL OUT ON HAMMER SWINGS" because he's not quite sure he can hold on much longer. I assured him that I'd pass it along to you, so that's all I'm doing. He cried a lot and at one point I had to talk him off the ledge (of the laundry hamper). So.....bro.... can you chill out a little on the gains? I've been subscribed for years and I kinda find myself siding with the black shirt's complaint - at the rate you're going, you won't need to heat up RR spikes to twist them; you'll just use your bare hands and hopefully not snap the head off of them.
Thats hilarious. Use these all day doing road work. 😂 used to hold down plates.
This will be my first project soon as my Anvil arrives. Thanks for the vid.
Great stuff John. Love your content and it's nice to have someone out in YT land with a similar sense of humor 🤣
Love the video man, like you said it takes me back. We sold a buttload of these things at craftshows over the years.. I explained to every person who bought one about the steel it was made from but not one ever cared. All they cared about was it was "made from a RR spike"... I live in Eastern,Ky which is coal country and by extension Railroad country so they were a good selling item.. In fact I bought my first "real" grinder an old Coote 2x72 way back with sales from spike knives.. I got mine from a local scrap yard that had the a scrap contract with the RR... Great video bud
Something i’ve been thinking about, (as soon as I get the 220v fixed in my shop), is forging the rough blade out of a spike, then clamping it to some copper, and running a bead of hard surfacing rod along the blade edge real fast, then grinding out the blade, just to have a semi-decent edge with minimum effort.
The railroad track section is definitely the part you want for a good high carbon blade.
Thanks man! It’s not that I really needed the permission to slap somebody into oblivion, but it’s always nice when I don’t have to worry with: “better to ask for forgiveness than permission”. Your comment made me laugh! Keep up the strong work
He said cyber bully, but I heard slap.
John, just wanted to say thank you for this video and all of the others you have made. Sharing your passion and the free education you've provided has been super beneficial for my growth in my metalworking journey!
Thanks for the video, I have always thought you made some of the best-looking spike knives out there.
thanks for the pointers john a buddy of mine works for railroad he gave me a 5 gallon bucket of brand new spikes like 120+ in a bucket plenty to practice with thanks Mark
I love your videos and I always appreciate products that minimize waste
Great content, and excellent work as always John!!!
The handle on that top one looks really cool!
Excellent work John! As I’m watching I’m looking in the background of your shop and thinking “damn that’s a lot of axe heads! And it looks clean and well organized” Also looks like a beautiful area you live in. I’ve never been to the east coast, maybe one day.
Some of the most beautiful functional knives,the price excludes most mortals
Those rope looking ones are my faves, they're so damn cool!
Thanks John outstanding video 👏👍
This is my go to channel to binge watch. I can’t wait for new content.
Keep on keepin’ on brother 🤘
-Joe Dirte’
I really want to know how you made those other twists. Do you have a video on them?
Great Video, it's always a pleasure
Cool thanks
Made one a few years (more than 40) ago, and heli-arked some hard face rod on the edge after profiling. Held a Good edge...! Had a 61 RC Hardness! (Yes, I'm "Old School"...! That's before they started calling it TIG Welding!). Lol
Heli-arc and Tig are both GTAW process but Heli-arc is done with helium and "TIG" is done with argon.
I dug up a few spikes when we had the septic tank done. Great video
Trying to envision how your septic was built in the path of a train. Or vice versa
@@IBoughtItMyself I think they buried old Red Gum sleepers
A local RR repair crew supvr not only let me have some used Ties, he also let me pick up old Spikes. I ended up with 18 Ties and a 5 gal bucket half full of spikes.
Good thing you asked. Most of the stuff laying about the tracks is garbage but you really don’t want to cross the railroad cops….not that they’re ever around.
Nice work man!
It’s funny I just made a spike knife with 1095 insert haven’t made one in years , just felt like doing one.
Love the video. Thinking of making up a few of these for xmas gifts. What is your average time per knife? Thanks
That's how I got started also. I still sell about 20 of these a year, but I market them as letter openers, not knives. Don't want my knife customers to get the idea I don't know the difference between a spike and 1084!
Great video!
What tool did you use for the twist?
I use a lawn mower blade with a slot cut in the middle the same withe as the spike to twist my spikes
Love the content !!!
Nice job.
You can buy them at a reasonable price from Kens custom iron.
Ken’s also sells RR spike twisting wrenches…though I’ve found the slots a bit too wide, but they work.
👍 Great video!
Are the braided handles done with chisels?
Behind every great forger is a policeman usually or a queue of chancers, lol.
Would it be possible to, after completing a blade and before grinding, to drill and insert ball bearings? I'm thinking that star constellations could be part of the design. Just a thought...
Thank you for the video
Awesome!
I'm just getting started on bladesmithing; the first knife I'm making for myself is an old leaf spring. But, I want to make a rr knife for my employee who manages the office on "forge-day" for her to wear as a utility knife when she's riding / working on / working w/ her horses. Is it worth trying to put a handle on one, since there's a chance she's going to be using this in the cold?
How can I buy one of these ?
Hey, do you have a video that exclusively shows how to make each of those twists? That seems like something I'd like to keep permanently handy.
A much older one yes. One of my first videos but I don't think I actually did the reverse twist on that one. But if you google
"Blacksmith
Reverse twist
Square twist
Pineapple twist
Rock twist
Rubix twist"
You'll find a million videos on how to make them
@@OldHickoryForge Yeah, I've seen a lot of them. I was just hoping there was a one-stop shop that I can just keep ready at-hand. Thanks!
Is there any way i can get you to make me a diagnol cross pein hammer sir
👍
Surveyors use and buy them for benchmarks all the time. I get mine from work.
крутая кукурука получилась!
Suppar bro 👌👌🤝💪❤
Oof here i am with 300 of them that i picked up on my daily walks..... whoops
Same here. Just came back with a bucket.
Lmbo! There is a group of the population that Pavlov trained well...😂
They are a little harder I believe because they are for Highway Crossing.
Don't need the specialty tool just weld a rod to an adjustable wrench
Railroads don’t like running people over,
Seeing people on the tracks is unnerving to a helpless engineer
There’s a lot of abandoned track, particularly old spurs owned by warehouses that converted to truck docks
There’s a lot of legit steel to be found if you work on the back side of industry and understand what is a pile of company assets and what is junk in the way
Came here from "Bladesmithing for Beginners" to say, How Dare You?!...
Look here man.... don't shoot the messenger!
I just got a call from your black tee shirt. He is really getting sick and tired of being stretched over your arms and back. He says it's getting ridiculous how often you swing hammers and keep getting bigger and bigger, even though you have a mechanical hammer available. He asked me to beg you to "CHILL OUT ON HAMMER SWINGS" because he's not quite sure he can hold on much longer. I assured him that I'd pass it along to you, so that's all I'm doing. He cried a lot and at one point I had to talk him off the ledge (of the laundry hamper). So.....bro.... can you chill out a little on the gains? I've been subscribed for years and I kinda find myself siding with the black shirt's complaint - at the rate you're going, you won't need to heat up RR spikes to twist them; you'll just use your bare hands and hopefully not snap the head off of them.
Bah. I have many others to replace him.