Tomahawk

[D Whitt]

Here is a tomahawk from a high carbon railroad spike.... I have heard a lot of stuff about railroad spikes not hardening..... but I did a number of normalizing steps and did a soak before I quenched and this thing is perfect I chopped 10 trees 2 inch diameter and the blade will still shave ????? Let me know what you think or what yalls experiences have been with hc stamped railroad spikes

 

[tkroenlein]

If this was a FB group, I wouldn't comment on railroad spikes because of the aftermath. But this is a solid group of folks.

Railroad spikes, the best of them, are about .3% carbon. That's not enough to make a great blade, but they are monumentally better than some of the makeshift iron cutting tools used to good effect historically.

I have a cheeeap Home Depot special clearly marked "India" and "1015." It works just fine for what I bought it for. I don't know how that's any better than your railroad spike. Looks like you have a good stout convexed edge. Oughta hold up pretty good.

 

[D Whitt]

Yeah the convex is pretty heavy I just wanted to try it to see how it would do I’m probably gonna forge weld a pc of 1095 into the next one I make and bring the beard down and closer to the handle like more of a camp axe than a tomahawk