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So I've been working on this little blacksmiths knife for a couple days (I only get about an hour a day max) and so far I love making them. Few things I'd do differently is make the blade about 20% bigger so it's more proportional. I would also move the twist up the handle by about 2". I will definitely take this one all the way but I'll likely keep it for myself. Steel=mystery steel, likely 8670 as its from an old (40yrs +) Allen wrench. The sheath on completion will be kydex. Any constructive criticism is welcome!

Gents, Asking for some help/ input. A friend found an old buggy spring in a field he was plowing, gave it to me, (photo). It doesn’t bend / break like wrought. It did weather like wrought and wasn’t rusted through as steel might. I cut a piece, took it to heat, quencher in water and it shattered with a mild hammer hit in the vise. I’ve included a short video of sparking and a still photo. Hope the video will load! Any guess on carbon and /or? I respect all opinions. Thanks, Gary LT IMG_3033.MOV

Forged this from an old rail clip I aquired some years ago. This steel has been on my list of "want to trys" for a while but given the quasi unknown composition of the steel I have put it off in fear of not getting the desired results for the amount of work. Decided to give it a go finally and wow was I surprised at the result. The hamon turned out nice and whispy, skated my 65 hrc file, no warps or cracks. Now to take this pleasant surprise and finish it off, really was not expecting to get a desirable blade from it. Here are a couple pics.

So I started making a spear today, partly as a secondary weapon for hunting our local feral pigs, but mostly just because I felt that I needed one. I wanted to use 1045 laminated with 5160 core, like san mai, but the local Alro doesn't carry "exotic" steels, so I went with 1018 and the venerable mystery steel. In this case, it's small gauge railroad track, pulled out of state forest along the AuSable river, most likely from a logging track. I used an angle grinder to cut the top off of about 14" of track, forged one end flat, normalized thrice using my Mark II eyeball to gauge temps, and quenched in weak brine. To my happy surprise, it hardened beautifully, and from my limited experience with grain size, it appears to have very a fine grain, comparable to the professionally HT'd stainless I run at work. Questions, critique, and suggestions welcome. I feel a duty to warn that progress will be extremely slow, as my forge is 2 hours away from my "normal" residence (apartment) that I am at no less than 5 days a week. Unless there is a fellow smith in the Saginaw/Reese area that wouldn't mind me using a corner of their property? Chase Here's a pic of the broken end: And a pic of the envisioned spearhead:

Hello everyone, I have found some old pieces, one is some kind of a pulley hook and the others are old barrels. The barrels have metal bandings on them and the are from "The Port Arthur Beverage Co." I have found out that the beverage company was bought out in 1948, so they would have had to been made before then. My question is, is it likely that they are wrought iron? They are very dark steel with little or no rust, is here a way to tell? The other hook pulley say "Vulcan 9" on it, and it is huge. I think that it would have to be made from good steel and was thinking of making a large blade with it. I know some of the ones marked Vulcan were drop forged, but most were cast iron. this one looks like good quality. I will attach a picture of the hook, and work on getting pictures of the barrels. Thanks for any help, Johnny

Hey guys, so last night I went down to my local rail way depot and picked up a BUNCH of spikes, large bolts, drill bits, a track joiner and E-Clips. Gave the boys down there a slab (case of beer for you american boys) and got talking about smithing with them, scored myself an invite to come down anytime and pick more stuff! Never ending scrap metal down there! My question though, is thus: this is a Pandrol E-Clip. Its kind of like the 'new school rr spike', used to fix track to the new concrete sleepers. I've looked on Pandrol's website and it says they are "made from high quality spring steel". Does anybody know how "high quality"? I know that scrap like this is sometimes a mystery, but I thought I would ask anyway. If its ok steel, there are literally hundreds of used clips at their depot