Forging a Railroad Spike Knife
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2019
- Today in the shop I am getting a little bit of blacksmithing practice under my belt, by forging a knife out of an old railroad spike. I’ll take you through the process of forging out the handle, drawing out the blade and forging in the bevels. Next I move to the grinders to grind in the final shape of the blade and then move on to the heat training process. After heat treatment I will go back to the grinder for finish work. This is a really fun project for beginner to master blacksmiths and knife makers who want to work on their forging skills.
Congratulations to Cadence James, who will be receiving this forged railroad spike knife. His name was drawn from one of our first 10 Patreon supporters, who were all eligible to win this knife.
To those of you who feel like you got something special from our videos and want to know how you can support us further, we have just launched our Patreon page here... / theartofcraftsmanship - Навчання та стиль
This is like hometown acres and wrangler star before they blew up and act like they don’t know nobody. You’re doing great man. More AXE videos please. Octagonal handles, cross wedge, laminated palm swell, carved palm swells.
Great video! You may want to raise your anvil a little. You're a big dude and you seem to be stooping quite a bit to get to the work. Raising your anvil will help your back in the long run!
DragonGod004 love your work buddy.....!!
There's a gremlin in your work shop ! 7:05 / caught ya little one ;-)
This has quickly become one of my favorite channels. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.
Glad to see a spike knife without the twist handle. I have a bucket full at home I’m dying to turn into knives after I upgrade from my coffee can forge. Great job and great video.
if you are a beginner I don't know what I am you got me bet you do good work niceeee
Just a little trick for you. Before you open the top valve light a small piece of paper and place it in your forge then slowly crack open the propane valve. Will save you that startle and keep the hair on your hand from getting burned. Great work love the channel
greetings from Spain. I love your videos and explanations. cheer up and keep it up.
Hello from Maryland!
Love how one of your children was hiding and came up and waved at us :)
Great afternoon video to watch and enjoy a coffee thanks
You’ve got to do a book! I can imagine a beautiful leather hard back book with instructions on how to make various things.
that's a beautiful piece! I'd like to see more blacksmithing from you, I love watching you enjoy your work.
Ever though of just using a toaster oven for tempering in the shop? I did that and the wife was much happier.
Absolutely awesome railroad spike knife !!!!!!!!!!!
Enjoyed the 'roughness' that you kept as a theme on the blade and handle.
Great work! It's amazing what can be done with the 1"x 30" belt sander. I bought one four years ago and it's consistently proved to be useful for all sorts of projects.
living alongside a river. that must be so relaxing
Horse flys and mosquitos make sure that doesn't happen
@@deepfriedsaltine3604 but the catfish makes it all worth it
Fantastic work u can say that nkz looks very impressive. Well done. Greetings from Serbia.
When opening a propane tank always back seat the valve (screw it all they open). I would suggest bending the blade tip in the opposite direction so as you draw out the blade the tip of the blade will move up to give the edge a nice curve to the tip.
One of my favorite knives to make, enjoy your videos thanks for sharing. Hammer on
Thanks for the video. This is exactly what I've been wanting to make! and lolz to the shop gremlin in the background @7:05
Great job! Sharpening tip. Take the 1x30 and put it on its back with the belt going away from you. Much easier to see the burr and keep a consistent angle. I use three HF 1x30 with different grits so I don’t have to change the belt.
Another beautiful hand made blade! I honestly couldn’t wait to watch this video! Thanks
Great video very informative and nice knife
Thank you Toby!
Very nice. Makes me wish I had kept all the RR spikes I collected as a kid:)
So happy to see you back in the shop working on something new, it had been a while! Keep on doing what you enjoy and putting out great content. Cheers
Just watched it. Awesome rustic look
Great job you really get the most from your little work space.
You’re very talented.
Wow love watching your channel me and my husband have learned a lot from you thanks
Enjoyable as well as inspiring!!
That was fun, thank you for doing that,
I really enjoy your videos and this one is one of my favorites.
cool ideas. much appreciated, Cal Langerud from northwestern Canada
Strong work!
Enjoyed watching the process, great video. Congrats to Cadence on winning a really nice work of craftsmanship.
Thanks Mike! Sorry you didn't win this time but we will have plenty more drawings coming down the line. Thanks again for your level of support. Hope you saw your name at the end of the video! We appreciate it so much.
The Art of Craftsmanship the pleasure is in watching and learning. Y’all do a great job. I appreciate the level of craftsmanship on screen, but also respect and appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into the editing and production off screen. Drawings are great, of course, but are icing on top in my opinion. Y’all keep on keeping on. Proud to support y’all.
RR spike was my first forged item many years ago. Nice job. I also saw your shop ghost in the background. Lol.
I made one of these a while ago and it was nice working with the old steel spike - wish I could get more of them. Nice tip about not running the end of the knife off the edge of the belt, it explains why I've had problems! Another great video.
Very good video! Thank you
From an 'ol blacksmith here is an idea. Looks like your anvil face is too low, that will wear you out. Stand next to the anvil, natural stance, make a fist. Your knuckles should touch the face of your anvil. "Hammer when it hot."
Awesome informational educational video experience Y'alls
Nice idea! Great knife!
Nice job! I 'collect' a bunch of 'modern' RR steel, (when I can get away with it). But I can can get even better knife steel from used lawnmower blades for 'the same price'....LOL. Here's a 'hack' for ya for a GREAT quality steel source.....If you can find a local 'saw sharpener', they'll have many blades that are beyond their service life. Scrap prices! (Sometimes FREE).....Eli.
planer blades from a wood mill they have tons of them and when they get to a certain size they get thrown in the steel scrap bin and some of them are big slabs of steel like 1 inch thick 6-8 inch wide 18-24 inch long YA! GOLD MINE!
Great job. Loved the video
I like how you took that spike in to a really nice knife keep up the great work and PEACE.
Hi my friend. Congratulations again for your great work. I love to see the love you put into doing your jobs. Again I envy your knowledge in different subjects to do what you really like. Greetings from Madrid.
Great video as always
awesome...
Great looking final product.
Also a fan of the lighting you use in the videos. The warm white colour as opposed to cold white LED panels that every channel seems to use these days.
Anthony Gatley what kind of oil is that????
You are a true craftsman 🗡️🇺🇸👶
Love your videos and love the music man. keep it up!
Hi there.
Great video. A login proces but A super result. I wish i had My shop up and running. It is A bit Way there. But i am Worning on it. I have bin learning A ton of stof here. Thank you.
Nice one great looking knife 😎👍
Nice simple design to your first outing. Maybe try forging a tomahawk railroad spike head next.
Thank you for having a worse anvil than me. I thought I had the worst anvil in the world but yours might be a tad worse. If I win the lotto I’ll buy us terrible anvil guys each a sweet 400lb’er. Keep up the great videos.
I really enjoyed this video, it now has me wanting to make a RR spike knife.
Do it!!
Some of the hammer work I would have approached differently; I love the geometry of the blade, Really Good; and your sanding skills are excellent. I would have gone on and cleaned up the entire blade (the handle was fine) but a blade that looks that good should be slick (not polished) from one end to the other. Great video, thanks, I'll be watching other.
Super fun video. My wife is going to be pissed when I buy a grinder :)
Good luck haha
Amazing job. You are a good teacher. My neighbor worked for the railroad and brought several spikes to me. ( he knows that I built my own forge. Just a novice.) He told me that much older spikes were better steel. Best to look at abandoned spur lines near abandoned factories. A question... How long does your grille sized propane tank last? I'm considering building another using gas. I use charcoal now. Keep it going.
Man i would love to commision you to make a railroad spike for me w/sheath love your work and channel.Thank you.
hey just a tip! if you see a spike with a letter on the head like an h thats a harder steel use in corners of the track different than the straight away parts of track
Very nice piece. Wonder what it would be like, if it had a leather handle laminated on it?
Nice job but you need to weld 1 inch steel plate on the harbor freight anvil, I did on mine and made a difference.
jai vraiment aimer to video et ton couteau est super ;;belle job
Hey man great video!! Was wondering what is the big grinder that you were using
Do you have a webpage? Do you have items you sell? I’d love one of your knives w/fire starter. Great work.
Hey man! I’m really enjoying your vids! Keep up the good work!
Just a little tip to save gas whilst forging is to close off one of your burners as for small projects like this one your only using one of your burners to heat the steel.
Keep up the good work!
Jack
Hey Guys, great video as always. Y'all do such cool work. If you remember, I'm the one that won the hatchet mod giveaway a few weeks back. Still haven't seen it in the mail and I'm crossing my fingers that nothing happened to it in transit. :( If it's just taken a while to ship out that would be great news to me... Anyways, always a pleasure watching you build.
I really like that I can watch your videos and relate to the equipment that you have. I also have a 1x30 grinder (can't afford the big 4x72). makes it nice to know that I can also produce similar products. Could you provide a list of grits that you use at each stage? I am always wondering when I should be changing grit and what level of grit to use.. thanks for the great vids
If you want a REALLY nice finish go with 60, 120, 200, 400, 600, 800 then polish with a cloth buffing wheel mounted on a harbor freight bench grinder motor. But honestly if you don't have money to blow on tons of belts you can get some pretty decent results from finishing with a worn out 200 grit belt and lots of buffing compound on a cloth buffing wheel. As far as when to step up to finer grit, just sand until the marks from the previous grit are gone. A pair of 2.0 magnification reading glasses from the dollar store helps alot to see what's what when you get into finer grits😎
Haha just noticed your daughter in the background.enjoy your videos
Nice work but I got to ask why you did not split it and add a softer piece of steal then forge weld it so you have a better edge ,,, I also want to ask why the hilt was so thick that's lot of material that could have got to the blade.....
I was wondering can you forge your own copper from scrap copper wire and such, or even better get gold from old broken jewelry to put in a knife handle? It would be cool to see more copper or brass in the handles and ya maybe even gold or silver, ( silver is a bit of a pain as it tarnishes so quickly. I have never seen anyone do anything with copper or brass except with store bought stock. I like you rail spike, I’m just thinking that metal is a bit of a waist of gas to work with, still cool you did it. Thank you so much for sharing.
Have you seen the chainsaw file trick to cut in your shoulders? I just tried it and it works fantastic.
Wonder how that spike would handle 100% mirror polish? Make a nice shop knife.
Curious as to the Rockwell rating on railroad spike steel. Does it hold an edge?? Is it hard to sharpen?
Well there’s 2 types of railroad spikes: High carbon (HC) and non high carbon
HC railroad spikes has the letters HC stamped into the head of the spike, these will hold a fantastic edge but other spikes aren’t very good at holding an edge and you have to add a lot powders with more aggressive heat treating and other stuff to make it useable
Great we have same gear. Not rich stuff
I love how there is character on knifes like that. I don’t like sanding down the whole blade. Have you forged anything from rebar?,,tons of ppl don’t like rebar but I’ve made a lot of nice knives with it. Keep up the great work brother.
that's because rebar is just mixture of who knows what and could have bad melding of metals and can break and not heat treat properly its fine if your new and your practicing your skill but you will see one day you will put a lot of work into a piece and it will fail and you won't do that again
hillbilly bmx
Until that day comes around I’ll keep enjoying it. But I know what your talking about.
Is that just regular motor oil, or a particular type?
What belts do you use
How do you like that little 1x32? im considering buying one as im on a budget and dont have a large shop that seems perfect!
I love the 1x30. Worth every penny. It’s a great little grinder that has a huge variety of uses.
Great videos man im subscribed! Keep on makin em and maybe open a patreon ill be a supporter! Its almost creepy watching your vids haha we have a ton of the same tools you and i and share so much of the same hobbies from knife making to archery and axes. You seem very wholesome and enjoyable to watch. A better man than me for putting these up on youtube, we appreciate the time it takes and that you put in to record, edit and upload these. Best wishing and respect my man keep up the awesome content!
Thanks Kyle! It does take alot of time but we enjoy it. It just so happens we recently started a Patreon account... www.patreon.com/theartofcraftsmanship
Mister Dustin, I like your videos, because they are full of infectious enthusiasm and knowledge! But one thing: That stone in front of your forge, that half of a door (so to say) - wouldn't it be better to put it to the left? It looks like the flames went in direction of the gas pipe - or is this only a question of perspective?
Yup, the flame comes straight down, so must just be a trick of the eye. Thanks for the suggestion though. It’s the thought that counts👍🏼.
what belts do you use on your 1x30 i have the harbor freight belts and they are so terrible
Look at Trugrit or CombatAbrassives and look for ceramic belts. Most of the HF belts are made for wood and you will blow the abrasives right off them in about two seconds if you use metal.
No compound on the strop?
I am brand new to forging and just hit your subscribe button! I do have two questions, when you are sanding your knife down to get a nice bevel are you dipping in water to just keep it cool or is there another reason? and why do you finish it by "sanding" it on leather?
The leather is to put a razor sharp edge on the blade😎
I HAD a nice rr spike knife once upon a time ( a hundred yrs ago ) BUT My
X DREAM KILLER wound up with it
( and almost EVERY THING ELSE ) !
The word ( name , I guess ) Pearce
is the only thing stamped on it .
Spikes ( rr ) seem to have good metal in them . Only thing I didn't
like , was it was WAY too HEAVY !
how good of steel is the rr spike...I've heard pros and cons.....your opinion?love your videos!!!!!
It’s a fun material to use and practice with. Not the best , but I can say that it hardened, and that’s good enough for a knife.
thank you for answering!!!
railroad spikes are mild steel so you probably didn't need to do the normalizing or hardening process since it shouldn't really harden, but it was fun to watch.
Thanks for the info. This one was carbon steel, because it did harden👍🏼. Your right about the majority of them though.
Is that a harbor freight anvil?
Nice knife man, is that you plucking the guitar ?
It’s not. It’s my brother and his band mates.
FYI, when grabbing rail road spikes, get the ones that say HC on the head! The older ones are high carbon! Newer ones aren’t so if your going to use them in a tackle box or tool box etc, use the HC!
What kind of anvil do you have? Looks cast iron?
Yeah, is a cheap harbor freight 50lb cast anvil. I wouldn’t buy it again, but it has done it job well enough for me while I’ve been learning forging.
You are NUTS for doing that in your house !
He’s actually doing it *under* his house. And as long as he keeps the ventilation going to keep the carbon monoxide at bay, nothing wrong with forging inside a shop.
Now lets see you make a rr spike out of a kitchen knige
😂😂😂Now that's a project I wanna see
What weight is your hammer my friend?
I have two hammers that I primarily use. One is 3lbs for moving mass, and the other is 1 1/2lbs for shaping work.
hey man me and my son are blacksmiths, and so when you quentch make sure the tip of the knife is facing north because of magnetisem(sorry for my bad spelling
Where does one legally get a railroad spike?
Online😉. I’ve been given or “collected” most of mine. I have bought a few from flea markets, or thrift stores, but mostly found discarded ones near tracks. I keep my sail boat at a marina that’s right next to a rail way, and the spikes get tossed, Work their way down the hill onto the marina property. Done. 🤷🏼♂️😁
Cheers m8, you've given me a new years idea, if mine turns out half as good i'll be glad!
Mini Thor Bjørnson
i got a ton of spikes
good video but a helpful hint get you sum real hammers it will save u a ton of time
It's my understanding that railroad spikes aren't all that great for knives. I don't know, but I've been told by people that should know that they just don't always harden as much as is really necessary. They might, but you never know exactly what the steel composition is, not all railroad spikes are made of the exact same metal. Over the years, standards changed, the companies are always looking for cheaper ones, and there are no markings so you'll never know what you've really got. They are a great medium for practice, however. Many a guy has learned to do blacksmithing starting out with spike knives.
Probably all true, and I was thinking the same thing. In fact, I was thinking halfway through, “Wait a minute. How does he know that’s not mild steel?” But I suspect this is intended to be more of a conversation starter, than a survival knife. Might also do fine for stuff like food. More novelty and “neat factor” than serious blade technology. Train buffs would love it!
@@JohnSmith-gs4lw Lots of guys start with railroad spike knives. I hardens a bit, usually. It's not usually exactly mild steel, but it's not high carbon steel either.
Did you know that when they process iron into steel, one of the first things they do is actually take out the carbon? Sounds crazy, I know, but there's a reason for it. In plain iron there is some carbon, but it's not like mixed in, it runs in streaks... like veins sometimes, so to get a good mix, they take the natural carbon out. Ever see a piece of broken cast iron, how it breaks in a strange line? It breaks because it's brittle, but usually breaks along one of those veins, all jagged like. So they take it out, and start from point zero, or as close to it as they can get, then add carbon back in in whatever amount, with whatever other ingredients the batch they're making needs, so they can get it exactly to whatever the specs are for that batch. It's also one of the things they do when they melt recycled steel down... they don't know exactly what the makeup might be, so they remove as much as they can of other ingredients and add back what that batch requires.
There is a kind of steel that has very high abrasion resistance, it's often used in things like rock crushers. I was hired to help rebuild an old rock crusher years ago. The boss ordered the right steel, the abrasion resistant king, but The truck driver dropped off the wrong steel, then both times after I'd already cut, fitted and was welding in the steel, he showed up and wanted that steel back. I just sent him to talk to the boss. I can understand making a mistake once, but when you repeat that mistake, that's just sheer stupidity... I don't know if it was on the driver or whoever marked the steel in the first place. Anyway, I always thought that abrassion resistant steel would make a hell of a knife that would stay sharp a long time... if you could manage to get it really sharp.
@Gangster of Love I'm not exactly sure. Wasn't part of my job when I worked at a steel mill so I only learned a thing or two here and there. this wasn't your usual mill, it only made fresh steel from old steel being recycled, so it could be they only do it with recycled steel, so they can get the kind of steel they want from the junk steel. Has to do with the temps they heat it at, then they run it through all kinds of machinery. My job was just to keep feeding in the cut up steel with a huge machine much like a fork lift, but on a huge scale. I think they had to remove other things as well, since they had things like chrome bumpers and such being fed in as well as anything from mild steel to high carbon ... everything but stainless... and I wouldn't be too sure some of that didn't sneak in somehow, though the magnet sorter should have left that behind.