Forged Railroad Spike Knife!!!

I made this knife from a HC Railroad Spike. I first forged the tip down to a point, then i worked on flattening the entire thing it to the desired thickness.I chopped off the back head of the spike. i continued to work on the profile of the knife. I also forged the bevel the best i could. As soon as i was happy with my hammer work i moved on to using the grinder.

I used a belt grinder to further work the profile and also started to work the concave bevel. As soon as the final shape was achieved, I started bringing up the grit on the belt to further increase the shine.

I made the micarta for the scales myself. I used a red felt and blue jeans. I used fiberglass resin and clamped all the layers together. The red became a much darker shade.

I cut the scales to an approx size and drilled hole thru both the steel and the micarta layers. The brass pins are 1/4 inch. I used a two part epoxy and clamped it all together. After it dried, i sanded and shaped it to the finished form. The micarta works very well on uneven knives. This is because the Micarta is very flexible since i made it and i did not get the ratio of hardener right. it is not goo-y it is just fairly flexible. it works for my projects well.

  The finish on the blade could have been brought up to a much higher grit but i did not. i think it is at 400 grit right now.

A very bizarre aspect of the knife is that it is magnetic. I dont know why this is. Does anyone know? and no i did not magnetize it like you do screwdrivers. Railroad rail is also magnetic and i wonder if this is because it is worked so hard that it becomes magnetic.

Any questions!??

As ever happy crafting- BC