Curse of the Railraod Spike

[antleygd]

I have no ideal how many of these I have made now. Seems every time I am free some customer drags me back in. A batch of 8 total. This is 5 that I finished. I have the others in the blank drawer for the next request...

The focus of the photo is on the cases. I am writing an artical on how I make my cases. I have been asked by severl of the locals how I do this. I have adapted the process from a class at Tandy Leather and lots of examples I have seen in person and on the internet.

 

[Ausbrooks]

Those are cool spike knives and nice leather work- keep those locals happy!

 

[CraigBest]

Those are some really cool knifes. I like the use of the railroad spike and the flow of the twist into the blade. Where/how do you sell them?

 

[antleygd]

People hunt me down for them. My problem is legal railroad spikes. I dont know how many spikes I have turned away because they were "picked up" off of the right of way. Every once in a while I find a contractor who has cleaned up a track rehab and I can get a bucket from them. Usually the load is in the scrap yard by the time I find them. At some point I will have to find where I can purchase a keg of nails.

I have sold them to the guys I worked with to Union Pacific employees. I started out at $50 then went to $75. I am at $100 and I still cant keep more than 2 in stock at a time. Word of mouth is all the advertising I can stand! Once upon a time I wondered how people forged the same pattern blade. I dont use a pattern and I can use the same knife case on most of my RR knives now. Guess it is reppppeeetion.