Tried using railroad spikes for my first forge-welded billet, ended up with a blade full of cracks

Grabbed a handful of spikes from the tracks near my shop in Ohio. Thought they'd be fine since they're just high carbon steel. After three heats and a ton of hammering, the welds looked good until I quenched it. Whole thing fractured into three pieces. Learned the hard way that those spikes have weird sulfur content and aren't consistent at all. Has anyone else had luck forging with railroad steel or is it just a trap for beginners?

2 comments

2 Comments

davis.mia1mo ago

First forge weld and you went straight for railroad spikes? That's like learning to cook by deep frying a wet sponge. Those spikes have more sulfur than a rotten egg and about as much consistency as a broken clock. I've seen guys try to salvage them by forging way hotter than normal and praying to the metal gods, but that's like polishing a turd. Your blade probably cracked because the impurities created weak spots that couldn't handle the quench shock. Consider it a rite of passage every bladesmith has to go through once, like burning your eyebrows off or dropping a hot billet on your boot.

hall.charles1mo ago

I read that railroad spikes have around 0.1% sulfur content, which is way higher than most steel. That stuff creates weak spots during welding. Heard a guy from a metalworking forum say you need to soak them at 2200F for 10 minutes to burn some of it off. Still a crapshoot though. Good learning experience even if the blade cracked.