![]() In fact they are quite inferior for many purposes such as making punches or chisels or other things that should be made out of higher quality steel. They ARE NOT the perfect stock material for all projects. Now I don’t want to oversell the value of railroad spikes. Things people make out of railroad spikes: Many metal working artists incorporate railroad spikes into their work as the symbolism of the railroad spike is very powerful…and it looks cool! On a less practical and more artistic note, railroad spikes are a symbol of industry and technological growth. In addition, I find that railroad tracks can make great practice stock for practicing various twists. Practice their skills cheaply without being excessively burdensome as they don’t need to waste lots of time on stock removal or cutting stock down to size. This allows newbie smiths to A railroad track Image Source Used/old railroad spikes can be bought very cheaply, and are often the perfect size for knives and small tools. Railroad spikes are often used as stock material by beginning blacksmiths. There are other benefits to using railroad spikes… Stealing them is equivalent to walking into someones workshop and helping yourself to their stuff, it’s not cool and could get you into a lot of trouble.īut it’s not all price vs quality of the material. Railroads own the land surrounding the tracks, so if you see spikes that are “discarded” on the side of the tracks, these ARE NOT FREEBIES. Just be careful, there are a lot of laws concerning railroad equipment. If you plan on salvaging or scrapping them, you will basically get a small fraction of the above values. If you are a business and a bulk producer forget it, you can buy higher quality steel at lower prices by buying in bulk.īut this all assumes you are a buyer of rr spikes. A Fork in the rr tracks near a small town Image Source So basically bulk orders of railroad spikes can be a money saver for at home hobbyists. However buying bulk orders of mild steel rods and bars is waaaay cheaper on a per lb basis. So if you are an absolute value hound, buying bulk orders of railroad spikes CAN BE marginally cheaper than small orders of steel stock – as small orders generally cost significantly more on a per lb. In my experience, a 6.5” spike will weight about. How much is that per pound of steel? Again it depends on what exactly you buy. Buying in bulk will get you a lower per unit price and will generally save you money on shipping. If you buy them online, used railroad spikes cost ROUGHLY (it will fluctuate) $.80/spike to $1.30/spike – this doesn’t include shipping. (note:these figures were done in 2019, and may not stay up to date through time due to inflationary pressures.) Therefore I did some quick napkin math for you down below: However, it may be difficult to compare the pricing of these spikes with other sources of steel stock.
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