Tomahawk

D Whitt

Active Member
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 spikesF3CF4FF3-0526-4CDC-A3D8-F51A4AE8CE4D.jpeg7D3130D3-7695-48BD-94BE-1AAD56D0FFBF.jpeg8E9D9D3F-D5F3-4D91-9CBA-0BA977F08D41.jpeg
 
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.
 
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
 
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