Why I bought this train rail.

[Kesterlath]

Hey Timothy, just a thought here. There is a HUGE market for steel made before 1945 due to the low background radiation. Everything made after that has elevated levels and is substandard for making medical devices that require as little radiation as possible as to not interfere with the results. There is a lot of money to be had in this kind of steel which you are in possession of. You may want to investigate and see if you're sitting on a gold mine. I know 100 year old axes are cool, but, 75 year old axes are pretty cool too and the steel can be bought with the proceeds of your 100 year old stuff...

[bgemski]

As someone who lays the rails for Tier 1 railroads, this is super cool to see it repurposed instead of laying all over our yards and roadways

[MikeZMonroe]

- Forging an ancient metal working technology. You’re demonstrating basic open die forging. I’m a retired Aerospace engineer and professionally worked with small to large forging companies throughout the US and Europe. Your axes are almost too nice to use. Beautiful hand crafted work.

[johncalleja]

Never appreciated how much workmanship goes into making an axe - Admire your passion for your work. Thanks for sharing ..

[lube]

Really enjoyed watching, I manufactured & heat treated industrial, knives & saws for 35 years. I now have over 22, 000 blueprints on file of chipper knives, lathe knives, granulator knives, paper knives, leather knives, Zamboni ice scrapper blades & saw blades up to 144" in diameter.

[davidsnyder]

I could watch you make axe heads 100x’s over and never get tired watching you make them. It’s mesmerizing……You do great work Timothy. Thank you for bringing us all along on the fabrication process. I know filming and editing adds a lot of extra time onto each project. Thanks again 👍🙂

[crustydribblins]

Though I have never tried black smithing in person, I am a welder of many years. I do and always will tip my hat to a dedicated smithy. Art and Heart can create wonderful things.

[obfuscated]

That's a million bucks worth of art material and a fine use for high manganese scrap rail. The way you refined and market product is a lesson for anyone interested in these things.

[vrd]

We cut a Weld out of a piece of continuous welded rail at our welding plant at our Union Pacific Rail welding plant . The piece was sent to be tested for any defects . The piece is cut into 16 pieces to fully test the weld . The welds are a flash butt weld in the plant and the strings of rail were 1440 feet long when I retired but now they are about 2000 feet long and the rail trains haul 50 strings of rail . Great idea of using the old 85 pound rail . Awesome video .

[johnnyjones]

Rail has a high manganese content, which means it will “work harden”, or become actually harder on the contact surface with the train wheels after use. An older rail is harder on top than a new rail. I tested this metallurgical fact during my railroad, welding, blacksmith, and machinist days.

[PaPawsWorkShop]

I can tell by your numbers that you have been doing this for a while on YouTube and I have just found you. This has to be one of the coolest things I’ve watched on YouTube. It is hard to explain with words why it is so satisfying watching you pound old railroad rail into a hatchet. I was sitting here watching and I said out loud, this is so cool.

[Theorof]

All of the blacksmithing hammers I own were bought from Ethan. It's good to see you guys working together. 👍

[rgetso]

You can never have too much raw stock. It gives you the freedom to experiment and develop new methods and products without worry. Forge on, Timothy…

[Brian-osqj]

Your ability to fashion these hatchets etc, make a guy with no interest, til I saw, want it! Now that’s artistry. Well done man.

[davidgriffiths]

Hi Timothy. Beautiful workmanship. While I would want to put it on display, I am sure thatthese axes deserve to work.
May I offer you some metallurgical feedback that might save some head scratching as you work through that pile of rails. I served as the rail rechnical specialist at Australia's rail mill in Whyalla through the 1980's and 90s. I had cause to visit the Algoma Mill where your rails were manufactured and in 1998-99 was a consultant at the Sydney Steel mill in Sydney Nova Scotia, representing them on the AREMA (American Railroad Engineering & Maintenance of Way Association. Modern rails are all continuously cast but up until about 1990, almost all rails used in Canada were made by the ingot route. Apart from improving the yield, continuous casting eliminated a potentially serious quality issue inherent to the ingot process - central segregation and potentially even pipe (shrinkage cavity). Pipe would be a disaster for your purpose though you would likely see it during the itial forging. The segregation though you would not see and it would give you grief durng hardening and tempering. I suggest that you use the head and base for axes and find a less challenging use for the web.
The Carbon content is typically 0.6 - 0.82% lower end of this range in older, smaller rails higher in larger, newer ones.
Johnny Jones is correct in commenting that rail has a high Manganese (Mn) content (usually about 0.8 - 1.0%. though not high enough to be a serious issue and certianly a long way short of the Hadfields Managanese steel which is cast into crossings which he may be thinking of. Johnny is also right that the head of the railwork hardens but that disappears as soon as you heat it to forge it. A bigger concern is micro-cracking of the running surface (called head checking) which results from the work hardening. Mocro they may be but they are still cracks and will grow during forging. I suggest that you clean up the rail head on your belt grinder and check for cracks - a little kerosine sprayed on the surface is a good crack detector. When spraye on the surface it soaks into the cracks. When the excess kero is wiked off, some of what soaked into the cracks will seep back out again to show you where the cracks are.
I've subscribed to see more.

[ApexHerbivore]

Outstanding work and attention to detail. Worth every penny.
This is the kind of craftsmanship we need more of these days.

[patrickv.palmer]

For a college summer job, I worked for the Canadian Pacific Railroad turn-out crew picking up the old lines. They would sell the rails to razor blade companies. They wanted it because it was extremely high-quality, premium, hard steel. Interesting job to say the least.

[rixretros]

Lovely your axes and hatchets will probably be around for the next century, assuming the new owners care for and use them properly like we all should with any tool. Fascinating process to watch. Keep up the great artistry with those reclaimed rails.

[POBulkhead]

My grandfather was from Norway. He was a blacksmith. During WWII he worked in the Brooklyn Naval Shipyard. He was the lead blacksmith and laid the keels for destroyers and liberty ships. He was a real American hero.

[dcsensui]

You have quite a shop with some very serious equipment! Nice job on the axes. Fascinating seeing the process.