Quenching A Rail Road Spaike
How to Determine the Age of a Railroad Spike. HOME » Hobbies. Determining the age of a railroad spike is nearly impossible once it has been removed from its original location. Dating a railroad spike is most easily done at the site of removal. When obtaining a new railroad spike, take the. How to Quench a Railroad Steel Spike.
'High Carbon' is a misnomer in this case. Here is a link to the only listing of the chemistry I could find -. As you can see, not much Carbon but, quite a bit of Manganese. My recipe to heat treat is to get them far hotter than you would a tool steel before quenching. The higher austenitizing temperature promotes grain growth which in turn increases hardenability. In this case, with so little Carbon present, there is pretty much no chance of the blade being too hard or brittle and using the hotter temperature lets you get just a little bit more hardness. I've never tried the Superquench (just cold water) but, anything you can do to get more hardness here will help.
I do not temper after hardening. This gets me an edge that will skate a file but, is a lot less abrasion resistant than tool steel when sanding or sharpening.Bruce. Bruce, I think that link may be for non 'HC' spikes. Here is something I found that suggests about.3% to.4% carbon in the 'HC' spikes - still not much carbon. I will try your idea of heating it up a little hotter than usual and see how that goes.BCROB, Thanks. I definitely qualify as a beginner in bladesmithing.
Railroad Spike Art
As you pointed out the RR spikes are cheap (free-I stopped at a RR work site and they gave me a hand full!), and fun to work with for a beginner. I also have a bunch of old files I have used.
Railroad Spike Knives
When I improve I will buy some 1084 and try that. I will share my only good experience with a spike knife. It was quenched in cold brine a few hundred degrees above magnetic and tempered at 360 f for 4 hours. It is not super hard but it holds a decent edge, call me crazy but I think that a few of the spikes I have are up above.50% based on how they sparked or maybe my forge really does add carbon.here I tested the edge and found no visible dulling after chopping a 2x4.
Railroad Spike For Sale
I may have just gotten lucky because I made another one and it did not hold so well of an edge. Do a Google Search for Super Quench. Rob Gunter, the inventor of Super Quench told me to temper at 400 degrees, not to remove brittleness but to refine grain structure.In a demonstration Rob made a chisel of mild steel (A-36) then quenched it in Super Quench and used the chisel to cut the drop the chisel was made from with it.Compare the sound of quenching a piece of metal in water or brine then with Super Quench. With the Super Quench it will scream. Edited February 16, 2015 by Wayne Coe.