Picked up a dozen hiking the railroad tracks yesterday. Seems I ought to be able to do something creative with them. I usually don’t create purely for art’s sake, I want it to be practical.
I can wire wheel the rust off but can’t heat it enough to work that way.
You can make a forge shell from the bottom third of a steel bucket or a galvanized feed trough. (Zinc vapor can kill so stay upwind on the first firing.) Line the forge with a mixture of fire clay and vermiculate. There are lots of recipes for forge and foundry lining. Don’t use a brake drum, too much thermal mass in the cast iron.
Actual coal is nice but I’ve used the hardwood lump charcoal a lot because it’s easy to get, it’s what was used before coal was common.
My bellows is a squirrel cage blower from a microwave. Light switch and plug wired in. PVC elbow and pipe to a piece of exhaust pipe that slides into the forge. Piece of bean can and close hanger wire to control airflow like the flap in a carburator inside the PVC.
Basically made it out of junk 20 years ago, works fine for my needs. Lot of fun and comes in handy.
Make some knives. I forget the codes, but some spikes are made of a medium carbon steel and will harden a little on a quench. I quenched in salted ice water with no temper to get them as hard as the medium steel was capable.
Hit me up if you want pics or advice.
Butt plugs
I made beer tap handles out of some
You could use them to secure some steel rails to large wooden sleepers, and then transport goods and people on carriages that roll upon the rails.
Seems someone already tried that and left a bunch laying around. Must have been a failed experiment.
It will never catch on.
These silly kids with their new fads. They should do something productive instead, like leash two large beasts of labour to a wheeled cart and transport goods and raw materials that way instead.
Back in the good old days, we used to carry things with our hands.
Insert them into politicians
And billionaires
And crooked public servants and judges
Railroad spike that shoots guns
Spikes that fire a gun, or a gun that fires spikes?
A spike that fires a gun that fires two more spikes, so you can create a cascade reaction!
And I thought the railway rifle was a creative weapon.
F.E.A.R:
The Armacham 10mm High Velocity Penetrator is a weapons-grade nail gun, firing 10mm steel stakes at lethal speeds. It can pin opponents to walls if the target is near a wall when they are hit with a fatal shot.
I can make black powder, sound like a reasonable starting point?
Spikes, black powder, high velocity, firing, experimenting…what could go wrong?
Is this the right moment to wish you good luck, bon voyage and adieu? I mean, we may or may not ever see you again after all.
😀
Weld them together to make some nearly indestructible art.
You can also paint them for fun.
Coathooks, drawer handles, book ends, door stops, gardening or tent stakes.
Some really shitty wall anchors
You got my gears turning. I could pre-drill holes and hammer them into trees for hanging hooks. Been thinking on a kayak hanging rig.
And now you have me going, I could hang the kayaks from trees in the very back of the yard (forested), no worry about shading from the sun’s UV.
Boot scrapers.
Genius. I need two for the house and one for camp. Sell the rest at the flea market? This may be the most practical and easy answer yet.
Crucifixion
Been done, so passé.
I’ve seen people make knives out of them. I believe it’s supposed to be a sort of “intro to blacksmithing” sort of project.
Saw a lot of that online last night. Just don’t have the means, but I have been thinking on a blast furnace. Been meaning to work up some charcoal in my test rig, guess I’ll do some burning tomorrow!
My stepfather has made knives out of railroad spikes. Apparently it takes a super long time tho. He didn’t have an actual forge and just used the hottest burning blowtorch he could get to heat the metal.
If they have numbers on them, you can sell them as birth year spikes. It’s fairly common.
You might be able to clean the rust off the spikes with electrolysis, do it outside though as it creates chlorine gas.
Done that before, but for such a simple form, the wire on my bench grinder makes short work of it.
