trust me there were some files involved in this i dont hammer that well lol, some hand sanding, swearing and some more hand sanding thanks for the comments
every thing i have read puts the hc (high carbon) spikes at about 1040 not the best but if you let people now theres not much carbon in them but they do pretty well, but i do let everyone now they could have a better steel (1095) but they are fun to forge for practice and people seem to like the ideal something came from a r&r spike quik note i know of other ways but i do heat treat my spikes in water then draw at 325 for 2 hours 1 time and they seem to hold a pretty desent edge for some time try it or exsperament with other ways im sure someone else will chime in if you would like other ways of heat treating
Thanks for the information. I have a couple spikes laying around and have done no forging yet (other than just pounding on red steel to see what happens). I thought I might heat one of them up and see what I can make from it.
I've never forged a blade although I have a high pressure LP forge, and a huge (to me) anvil. No tongs... maybe a tutorial of how to make my first set. Any way, your knife is inspiring enough, maybe I'll get off my @$$ and cook some steel spikes.