RR Spike

Ernie Swanson

SASSY PINK LUUNCHBOX KNIFE MAKER
I just got a RR spike and was thinking about saving it to make a knife when I get my forge built.

I was wondering it they are made out of hardenable steel and if so does anyone know what steel they are? Assuming they are all the same.
 
The main thing to remember is that RR spikes were never meant to take an edge. They're built to withstand a lot of stress and pressure without shearing off.

They are definitely not all the same. Some have more carbon than others, and can be hardened to a degree; but not what you'd get from a true high-carbon cutlery-grade steel like 1084, 1095 or O1.

The guy to ask is Wayne Coe. When I visited him last summer he explained how he uses a certain quenchant (if I remember right, it's a sort of brine) to get the most hardness out of medium or low carbon steel.
 
RR spikes make neat novelty knives, but that's about it. No matter which variety of spike you acquire, they simply will not achieve enough hardness to be used as a cutting tool.
I'm pretty sure the quenchant James referred to is "Super Quench"..... 5 gallons of water, 5lbs of salt, 32oz of Dawn dish washing liquid, 5oz of shaklee basic H. The quench was developed years ago by Robb Gunter when he was working for Sandia Labs. Give or take it can get mild steel to an Rc of around 48-49.

Don't discount the appeal of RR spike knives....there was a time that I made a sizable portion of my sales from them.....you just have to ensure that customers understand the limitations.
 
Thanks Guys, I will save it for when my forge is complete and I find an anvil.

I can get more, I think I will start collecting them, if nothing else they should provide good forging practice :)

Hey Ed, what in the world is shaklee basic H?
 
I'm pretty sure the quenchant James referred to is "Super Quench"..... 5 gallons of water, 5lbs of salt, 32oz of Dawn dish washing liquid, 5oz of shaklee basic H. The quench was developed years ago by Robb Gunter when he was working for Sandia Labs. Give or take it can get mild steel to an Rc of around 48-49.

Yessir, that's what Wayne told me about. I think he posted about it here too?
 
The information I have from Robb is in http://knifedogs.com/showthread.php?...h-Super-Quench as stated by BobH.
Ernie, Shaklee 2 is a surfacant. See my SuperQuench thread. Shaklee is a competator to Amway products. You can also use JetDry in the deturgent section of the grocery store. It is for use in the dishwasher to prevent water spots. Also surfacants from the Feed and Seed store for use with weed killers.
 
So Jet Dry and Dish soap?

I have a lot of stuff to do before I get to forge but hopefully I can get stuff together.

Once my grinder is done I will start the construction of my forge and burner, then I will just have to find an anvil.
 
My most recent ones have been split down the length of the spike and I forge weld in a scrap of cutlery grade steel, all the look with the edge to boot.
 
Or you could branch out.....

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This smith had a spike that was fairly high in carbon and decided to play with it, to a great result!
 
I wouldn't say you don't have the skill, SOL, you just didn't finish it. I'm sure his tomahawk look very similar to that before the hours of filing and sanding!

As for making knives out of spikes, I'm generally against it. I personally cannot stand when the smith leaves the rear portion alone so everyone knows the knife started as a spike, and find 99% of the knives to be unbalanced, near useless in terms of edge holding, and, to be frank, just plain ugly. You go through a lot of work to end up with what's a mediocre knife, at best.
 
I wouldn't say you don't have the skill, SOL, you just didn't finish it. I'm sure his tomahawk look very similar to that before the hours of filing and sanding!

As for making knives out of spikes, I'm generally against it. I personally cannot stand when the smith leaves the rear portion alone so everyone knows the knife started as a spike, and find 99% of the knives to be unbalanced, near useless in terms of edge holding, and, to be frank, just plain ugly. You go through a lot of work to end up with what's a mediocre knife, at best.


I think one reason why people leave the the rear portion alone is so that people do know it started out as a spike.
 
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