That old railroad spike I tried to forge into a knife just split clean in half

I was heating up this spike I found near the old railyard outside of town, figured it'd be good practice for a basic blade, but after the third quench a crack ran right through the middle. Turns out those spikes are usually high-carbon steel that can't handle a sudden cool down unless you normalize it first. Has anyone else had a project completely fail on them from a simple misstep like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

noahhernandez13h agoMost Upvoted

Sounds like user error, not the spike's fault.

wesley_hart10h ago

Heard a similar story from a guy at a local blacksmithing meetup who tried the same thing with a railroad spike. Apparently you gotta do a few slow heat and cool cycles before you even start shaping it, otherwise the internal stress just builds up. Your mileage may vary, but that normalization step has saved me from a few cracked projects since I picked it up.