Anyone ever try hardening a high carbon railroad spike? I just wanted to make a set of chisels out of a bunch of them
Anyone ever try hardening a high carbon railroad spike? I just wanted to make a set of chisels out of a bunch of them
Anyone ever try hardening a high carbon railroad spike? I just wanted to make a set of chisels out of a bunch of them
https://www.thebarefootforge.com/blog/2019/11/4/railroad-spikes-are-hc-spikes-high-carbon
They're not "high carbon" in the traditional sense, they just have a bit more carbon than the average railroad spike which may not be enough to harden at all.
They ain't gotta be a Hatori Hanzo sword. Just hard enough for derping around on the farm. I have a set of real ones, I just want something different
Look homosexual, do you just want some one to say yes?
Yes. Go waste fuel hardening your 0.3% carbon railroad spike. Idiot.
just buy tool steel blanks homosexual
It's not going to harden worth a frick, they don't have all that much carbon.
Ignore the gatekeepers OP, and just do it.
Haven't tried yet, but have looked into hardening my own tools. Propane forge is the way to go. You can get a big propane torch at big box hardware store for $50. Get some firebrick and set up an area to blast the steel directly, the torch should be able to do it. You just need to research proper procedure for the type of metal you will probably be using and how hard you want it. Or just apply a basic heat treat procedure and hope it's good enough (it probably will be). Or you could make an actual propane forge. Here are some links.
Also, there is a cryo-treatment you can do to harden steel using dry ice. It is used in conjunction with the heat treat. good luck OP.
https://www.bladesmithsforum.com/index.php?/topic/41817-understanding-the-inside-of-a-forge-insulation-vs-reflection/
https://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/63-forges/
It will absolutely, positively harden with a water quench. Cold tap water is fine. Temper kinda low; maybe 300-325 F for at least an hour. The kitchen oven is fine for tempering. Put the chisels on a brick or in a tray of sand to keep the heat even.
Chisels (I'm assuming for woodworking) have a very thin edge. It will dull fairly quickly and you will sharpen more often than your typical Harbor Freight crap.
Cryo treatment doesn't really harden steel at all, though some believe it MIGHT get you a whole 1 extra point of HRC. It only relieves brittleness after temper. And it only has an effect on stainless and other steels with very high chromium content. In other words, useless for RR spikes.
If you're doing it for fun and only plan on occasional light use of the chisels then go for it. 0.35% carbon is still better than most of the chisels used throughout history. RR spikes are much, much more forgiving to forge, file/grind and heat treat than any tool steel.
A charcoal forge is cheaper and easier to build than a propane forge. Google JABOD forge for real simple ideas. Still use my brake drum forge sometimes with a blower made from a $8 air mattress inflator wired to a dimmer switch.
Bladesmith here. I'm just finishing up a 1085 nagamaki made entirely without power tools. Most of these other guys are shitbags repeating what they've heard from semi-literate hayseeds online.
Have a good time with it, OP. Its probably one of the most realistic projects for a novice to pull off.
>It will absolutely, positively harden with a water quench.
>weaboo "bladesmith" doesn't know shit about metallurgy
What a surprise.
Frick off, fascist I make katanas that sell for tens of thousend's of dollar's what do you do other then be and incel?
I chuckled so here's your (you)
>It will absolutely, positively harden with a water quench
Partially true. brine quench, water itself isnt quick enough
>Cold tap water is fine.
partially true The main issue of the quenchant isnt its temperature relative to the steel being quenched, its reducing the incidence of the vapor barrier preventing the direct contact and thus heat transfer. Hence the brine.
>. Temper kinda low; maybe 300-325 F for at least an hour.
Tempering is unnecessary in this case.
>Most of these other guys are shitbags repeating what they've heard from semi-literate hayseeds online.
Seems familiar.. That said the problem was seeming answers from backyard blacksmiths.. aka any random idiot with a hammer and a forge. The real solution was looking up a steel composition chart of "HC" rail road spikes and looking up a heat treat chart on a machinist forum for a semi equivalent modern steel. That's how you get answers all over the spectrum about how rail spikes are unhardenable based on cletus throwing it in cold vegetable oil and being amazed that it wasnt hard.
Forgot to add, warm water dissolves more salt. Cold water is counter productive to holding salts in suspension and keeping the formation of a vapor jacket to a minimum. My brine is so super saturated that at "room" temperature it crystalizes. When appropriately preheated its all dissolved.
Literally his only option is case hardening if he's intent on using a RR spike. There is nothing you can do to 1035 equivalent that will make it harden any serious amount. There just isn't enough carbon in it, this is basis materials science. Basic b***h bronze, like bronze age bronze, is harder than you can get 1035.
>Basic b***h bronze, like bronze age bronze, is harder than you can get 1035.
Sorry anon, you're right, I was mixing up the scales. High tin bronze is minimum 160 brinell and 1035 is ~185 brinell. There are a lot of modern bronze alloys that are harder than 1035 though lol.
Forge weld on a high carbon bit. That's the true traditional way to make chisels. Forge welding is one of the most satisfying thing to do also.
Railroad spikes are pretty shit in terms of hardness. If you want to make chisels, go for something decent like ball bearing sleeves or car springs (both leaf and coils work).
>inb4 u didn't answer muh question
I mean sure, I guess you could try finding the most high carbon railroad spike in existence, quench it in liquid nitrogen and harden it as much as you can, but it will always be worse than the shittiest unhardened leaf spring chisel, simply because the alloy in railroad spikes is not designed to be hard.
Probably not enough carbon to harden, but you could use a compound to surface harden the tool after you've shaped it. Probably not effective outside of things like files, but frick it. Give it a shot.
Also, see:
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Nah, they're just highER carbon than other spikes. For things like chisels and such you need more. Onlinemetals.com is a good place for sourcing metals for things like punches, chisels, etc.