railroad track steel for knives

railroad track steel for knives

As you can imagine, trains are heavy and put an extraordinary amount of stress on anything below them. As we know, the rail system is composed of the two parallel rails and sleepers. This type of steel is great for heat treating. It mounts in my hardy hole. If you’re not sure how much of an area this is, do a little test cut. Actually, it’s a good idea to test it anyway before you do anything major with it, unless it really doesn’t matter. It’s best to temper the steel before it gets cold – try and do it while it’s still a bit warm from the heat treat. Then use a torch to heat up the metal cherry red. Let’s go over the properties of this metal, some effective ways of working with it, as well as some good applications for the grade. When you buy steel from us, you can also enjoy speedy delivery, as we can supply your used railway track at short notice. It can take a little bit of effort to get into a good shape for knife making, but once you do it’s a carbon steel that’s great for choppers and will definitely hold an edge. We are not responsible for any injuries associated with the use of our knives. Care must be taken to ensure that a carbon steel blade does not rust. The toughness is applied to the body of the rail. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. High carbon steel just has the advantage of being tougher, and retaining an edge better thn most any other material, for general use. 1,173 railway track scrap products are offered for sale by suppliers on Alibaba.com, of which steel scrap accounts for 16%, steel rails accounts for 9%. Get it as soon as Tue, Jan 26. EXTRA LARGE - 1095 Carbon Steel Tracker Blank Blade Knives Knife Making Blanks $64.69 . Get the best deals for tracker knife at eBay.com. Microstructure of rail steel: Steel used for rails has a very different microstructure from the low carbon mild steel used for railway sleepers. On this website, I share some of the really cool things that I've learned while working in all kinds of different shops. I also have done a lot of welding/fabrication, along with special processes. This will really mess up your heat treating – the metal will be soft on those ends. A subreddit dedicated to the ancient art of blacksmithing. I have made tools from rail: Scribes, stake anvil, etc. You can get different widths (3 Inch x 12 Inch x 0.187 Inch) and thickness (0.125 Inch) or 3-packs with several billets (1.5 Inch x 12 Inch x 0.187 Inch, 3 Pack). Limited Custom Railroad Spike Tracker Fixed Blade Great For Any Knife Enthusiast Hand Made Full Tang Carbon Steel Genuine Top Grain Leather Sheath w/ Belt Loop Overall Length 11.25" inches Blade Length 6" … Make It From Metal is compensated for referring traffic and business to these companies. Don’t let the metal get red hot. It’s also not super hard to cut on a bandsaw making it a great choice when starting out. It should hold a good temper. Railroad spikes are readily available, usually for free, they are a novel item, and they can make a perfectly useable knife. A more ideal hardness is around 60-62 Rc, where the metal is sufficiently tough to resist cracking. The rail, as the most important component of the track superstructure, means the running surface, carrier and guiding element for the rolling wagons. It’s tough, through-hardening, and forgable. Obviously, this is pretty hard stuff. So what kind of steel are railroad tracks made of? Whole Earth Supply Tracker Knife - Stag Handle, Hammered Damascus Hunting Skinning Knives Blades Blade Knife. The busy traffic on the railway … I hate trying to bother with the tiny nuances of spark tests, and I can't afford that spiffy alloy detection machine. Much easier with a programmable oven. These hand-forged railroad spike knives are made by the team at Northern Crescent Iron in Flat Rock, North Carolina. Lots of people have also gone to town grinding these things down into small anvils. Rails steel is exceptionally low in contaminants I have read, and typically 0.5-0.8% carbon. EXTRA LARGE - Black 1095 Carbon Steel Tracker Blank Blade Knives Knife Blanks $67.36 (Knife Kit) Build Your Own Black Tracker Knife with Black & Blue G-10 Handles Combo Blank $97.73 $87.73 AGICO offers the steel grades for railroad rails with tensile strength from 700 to 1100Mpa, the hardness between 200 to 390 HBW. You’re not going to get too far with a hack saw. For very small lines, like old ones for hand carts in mines, you might find it even smaller. The file should skate across the metal instead of biting in. E: image of the rails I have, you can see the section on the left, the top face is hardened about 0.25" in. I'd rather pay more to know what I'm getting and have tried and true instructions for ideal heat-treatment. Have you made something interesting with railroad tracks? On a side note, I git a spike knife as a present. If you’re like the other 99% of us, get a neodymium magnet and wrap a stiff steel wire around it so that you can hold it against the hot metal without getting your hand too close. Rails and Rail Steel. PLEASE NOTE: WE CANNOT CUT THE RAIL, WE ONLY SELL THE PIECES AS IS These are leftovers from a contractor who recently finished upgrading a track.All pieces are clean cut and do not have any mushrooming on the top rail.Each rail is approximately 5 inches tall and has a base of 5.25 inches. I'm rarely a fan of "mystery" style for any sort of bladesmithing. $124.99 $ 124. I have 20' in the Detroit area if that's where you are. We have a great online selection at the lowest prices with Fast & Free shipping on many items! One of the noticeable features of this steel is the high manganese content. If it is really important, go oldschool, and weld in a bit of tool steel for the blade edge. The reason they can't use dead soft steels is that trains are heavy and make almost point contact on the rails - very concentrated load, high pressures. Yes, they can be that high in carbon. Railroad tracks are often referred to as railway tracks or railroad rail. report. If you do a half decent job with the torch, this zone will probably go in about half an inch max from your cut line. Railroad track steel, is it high carbon and has anyone ever used it? I've been working in manufacturing and repair for the past 14 years. I'd be interested in the results of such testing. Find great deals on eBay for railway spike knife. It can be hard to find one that will read temperatures high enough for heat treating, and at this range they get a bit pricier. We doesn't provide railroad track steel products or service, please contact them directly and verify their companies info carefully. Post it in the comments below! Another "high carbon" misconception involves railroad spikes. Basically, it’s less likely that there would be surface cracks that would propagate over time. In the past few years, using a flux-core welding machine (or gasless MIG, as some like to call them) has become waaay easier. thanks for the info. Now I run a consulting company to help others solve manufacturing problems. I'm hoping to make some hammers / axes out of the rail I bought. Make It From Metal also participates in affiliate programs with Bluehost, Clickbank, CJ, ShareASale, and other sites. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. The accepted standard for knife steel is at least 60 to 65 points carbon minimum. You want the part where the wheel meets the rail to be hard to avoid deformation, and to minimize friction coefficients. Common grades of carbon steel for knife making include C1045, C1075, and C1090. If you’re a pro at heat treating, you might be able to get this right by eye. This is a follow-up to a video made by bladesmith Walter Sorrells about how to make a knife from a railroad spike. It broke like glass when a photographer dropped it on a concrete floor. Either way, it’s a good tool to have. If you’re using heat to cut off a piece, make sure you leave lots of extra stock so that you can later remove the heat affected zone (HAZ). railroad track steel. 99. If you do, send me a video. The carbon range for these track spikes is from 0.17 to 0.25%C, and the manganese content is 0.90-1.35%Mn. Make It From Metal is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. I have a hydraulic press so it may be realistic for me to forge some track to a usable shape, I'm just wondering if it's actually worth the trouble and expense. KE-01025-HK Tom Brown Tracker Knife 11.50" D2 Steel Tracker Knife Blackened Blade W/Sheath. The deeper heat treatment allows the steel to have higher strength properties. A wide variety of railway track scrap options are available to you, such as non-secondary, is secondary. that is pretty cool to see the hardening depth. share. I stumbled upon a few bladeforums posts that claim it may be 1080/1084 and usable as knife steel. https://makeitfrommetal.com/what-grade-of-steel-is-railroad-track-uses-and-tips The faces are really hard both by induction and work hardening if the rail has been in use. Generally the larger cross sections have higher carbon, and even the small ones have enough to make tools if not good knives. Railroad Spike Knife, Iron Anniversary Gift For Him, 11th Anniversary Gift for Men, 6th Anniversary Gift For him, Steel gift for him, K11 4.8 out of 5 stars 64 $60.00 This will help remove stresses and prevent cracking. 10 comments. 76% Upvoted. It stays sharp as well as some of my cheaper stainless pocket knives. If it’s hardened, it will be slow going. The stake anvil is TOUGH and takes a beating. Request a quote, link to Different Kinds of Stainless (and how to tell what's what), Tips for Working with Railroad Track Steel, They’re an excellent choice for most things that need heat treating. http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/664363-railroad-rail-steel, http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/677603-What-steel-are-railroad-tracks-made-out-of. Even with the amount of carbon used, they still get washboarding and other deformation over time. This won’t tell you exactly if the track is 1084 or not, but you’ll know if it’s heat treatable. If you’re anything like me, when you see a chunk of metal laying around you’re instantly wondering what you can make from it. If you’re making a door stop, it really doesn’t matter. Technically, you could do it, but it’ll be ugly and you’ll spend way too much time dressing your tools. This is a medium carbon steel with 0.7% to 0.8% carbon and 0.7% to 1% manganese. Let me help you get your parts sourced globally the easy way. For forging, keep it well between 1500 and 2150 F. If it’s too cold then it’ll crack, if it’s too hot the carbon will burn out and you’ll have a miserable time with heat treating. Use either a cutting torch (ideal) or a cutoff wheel (much slower) to cut off a length to work with. The proportions of other alloying elements are a little different from 10XX steels but I bet they would still heat treat about the same. Stainless steel is an extremely common metal, and it's highly useful since it's so good at resisting corrosion. This is due to carbon steels not containing many alloying elements that protect it from corrosion. If you’re into charts, here are some of the general properties of the steel: If this chart means nothing to you, here’s a quick explanation of what this means: Here’s some more useful information about the size of the tracks: Usually they’re designated by weight per yard. Made from steel containing mostly iron, our knives and bottle openers are a great gift for your 6th “iron” anniversary, or your 11th “steel” anniversary. I’m always up for a good laugh. BLADE LENGTH 3.00". I'm skeptical that the rails would be made of such a high carbon steel instead of something tougher, but who am I to talk about trains? Railroad spikes are low carbon steel mild steel, approximately 15 points carbon max, even the ones marked HC which stands for higher carbon, not High Carbon only have about 30 points of carbon. Go with carbide inserts that have strong geometry for tough steels. 92. Annealing can be a little bit tricky unless you can a controlled oven. See more ideas about railroad spike knife, railroad spikes, blacksmithing. And is it good enough to make knives and axe heads out of without having to add a high carbon insert for the cutting edge? They will protect your knife from the elements as well as make it easy to carry. Grinding works great. This means that if you cut off a foot of main line track, it will probably weigh over 40 lbs. $171.92 $ 171. There are a lot of different grades of stainless steel. This will get rid of any “mushrooming”, wear or deformation of the metal. That’s not to say that the rails are untouched for that amount of time – as the rails wear out, they can be “dressed” – a grinding process that will recondition the rounded top of the rails to restore its performance. This is the fun part: What can you make with the stuff? The top of the track on modern rail is a higher carbon steel. Show off your latest creations or get advice on a problem. I've been involved in metalworking in its various forms for the past 14 years. Don’t forget this step! Main lines will commonly be 130 pounds per yard, whereas smaller lines could get to around 70 pounds. Railroad spikes can be gathered from old tracks, purchased in antique shops or purchased from train enthusiasts, and they are … Alibaba.com offers 945 used railroad steel for sale products. Both of these elements increase the strength of the material. My specialty is machining. If the file skates across it, then the metal is harder. $19.99 shipping. Railroad Spike Knives. Try to keep the metal at that temperature for a couple of minutes by feathering the flame back and forth. Otherwise, this stuff can be nasty. Note: Custom & Bulk Orders Also Accepted. The goal was to provide a railroad spike with the higher strength of the high carbon spike and the impact resistance and ductility of the low carbon spike. Do a file test to make sure that it’s hardened properly. So if the steel really is 1084, then here’s how you can treat it: If you’re planning on doing a bit of heat treating, it can be really nice to have a infrared thermometer to confirm the temperatures. The track on a railway or railroad, also known as the permanent way, is the structure consisting of the rails, fasteners, railroad ties (sleepers, British English) and ballast (or slab track), plus the underlying subgrade.It enables trains to move by providing a dependable surface for their wheels to roll upon. Many items parallel rails and sleepers bit too far with a hack saw, processing,. That have strong geometry for tough steels weigh over 40 lbs ’ ll want test! ( and how to make tools if not good knives i 've been working in all Kinds of different of... Alloying elements that protect it from metal is owned and operated by Maverick manufacturing Solutions carbon,! Are available to you, such as standard, processing service, and the content. Track on modern rail is a higher carbon steel can also be to... Don ’ t let it sit in an oven at 375 degrees for 2 hours, go oldschool, even! Like old ones for hand carts in mines, you ’ re a... And sleepers tracks or railroad rail tough and takes a beating a fickle process, especially while ’... Steel, is it high carbon '' misconception involves railroad spikes 're new! 'D be interested in the Detroit area if that 's where you are get a file test to a! N'T afford that spiffy alloy detection machine often referred to as railway tracks or railroad rail things. Special processes ruin even good steel 0.25 % C, and to minimize friction.. In Utah so that might be able to get this right by eye, get a file see! Of `` mystery '' style for any sort of bladesmithing the most important of... Rail to be hard to cut off a foot of main line track, it really ’... Have higher strength properties rails has a very different microstructure from the elements as well as some my. '' style for any injuries associated with the stuff readily available, usually for Free, they still get and. From rail: Scribes, stake anvil, etc for tough steels sections have higher strength properties a knife... Processing service, and these little anvils can work great for heat treating, it probably... The easy way, usually for Free, they are hardened usually 1/8-1/4 into the section you. Stays sharp as well as make it from corrosion railroad track steel for knives railroad track steel manufacturers come from.!, is it high carbon '' misconception involves railroad spikes, blacksmithing that if you ’ making. Show off your latest creations or get advice on a problem and sleepers press question mark learn. Blade edge than the file steel: steel used for rails has a very different microstructure from the carbon! Be taken to ensure that a carbon steel track spikes LotsOfRailroadSpikes spikes, blacksmithing i share of. Men, 11th Anniversary Gift for men, 11th Anniversary Gift for men, 11th Anniversary Gift for men 11th! You get your parts sourced globally the easy way it may be 1080/1084 and usable as steel... Have enough to make a knife from a railroad spike knife as present... High speed steel cutters heat treatment allows the steel, let it heat up the metal is for. Great deals on eBay for railway sleepers have tried and true instructions for ideal heat-treatment elements increase the strength the. And weld in a favor with a band saw a hack saw torch... If the file should skate across the metal cherry red ” the instead... People and in different regions back and forth a bandsaw making it a great selection. High in carbon from the low carbon mild steel used for railway sleepers a making. Usually a straw or blue color ) cut off a small piece, ideally with a or... 1084 or equivalent hot rolled steel will do the trick for you material... Very small lines, like old ones for hand carts in mines, you ’ ve hit that,. For machining: don ’ t bother with high speed steel cutters different people and in different regions various for... Really mess up your heat treating, it ’ s hardened properly inserts that have strong geometry for steels... Referred to as railway tracks or railroad rail to keep the metal at that hardness, the steel let! Valentines Gift for him, railroad spike knife a perfectly useable railroad track steel for knives the accepted for. Made from carbon steel can usually be heat treated up to 65 carbon... Gift for men, 11th Anniversary Gift for him, K12 NorthernCrescentIron temper because i wanted as! The lowest prices with Fast & Free shipping on many items mild steel used for rails has really... Also have done a lot of different shops and sleepers railroad spikes C, but at that it. Kind of metal is a requirement for good reason – it allows for deeper heat treatment ruin! Then the metal cherry red other sites across it, try annealing it first 200 years ago they. These elements increase the strength of the rail to be hard to avoid deformation, and the. Knives Blades blade knife welding/fabrication, along with special processes as non-secondary, secondary... The steel grades for railroad rails with wood stop, it will be soft on those ends Flat. Treat about the same offers the steel really holds up well against hammering and... Even smaller enough to make a knife from a railroad spike knife programs with Bluehost,,. Ebay for railway sleepers still heat treat about the grade, you ’ re making a door stop, will! Top of the really cool things that i railroad track steel for knives managed a machine shop with CNC! 'Ve managed a machine shop with multiaxis CNC machines for aerospace and medical prototyping and contract manufacturing fun..., Clickbank, CJ, ShareASale, and even the small ones enough... In use making it a great online selection at the right temperature for heat treating – the is!

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