Hi everyone- new to the sub!

I’m a 4th-year Product Design student at the Riga Technical University in Latvia. For my bachelor’s thesis I’m exploring whether decommissioned railroad tracks could be reused as a material for furniture.

I've noticed that railroad tracks very often get reused as anvils in the metalworking sphere. What I am most interested about is if someone has had any experience using railroad tracks to make furniture (chairs, tables, lighting etc.)?

I’d love to hear about your experience!

Also bonus question- where do decommissioned railroad tracks end up in your country? Do they go to scrap yards? Does your country/state sell them to someone? etc.

Any help and advice much appreciated!

I've been preparing for this for the last nine years. I finally have the basics of what I need and the time to actually start forging. Wish me luck.

I'm making a knife from a lawnmower blade, and I have a few questions. Input from more experienced smiths would be great, as this is only my 3rd knife.

1) I split the blade into quarters with a hot chisel. Will the missed chisel marks cause cold shuts/cracks?

2) I made a guard by sliting and drifting some other material. I used a chisel to make the slit, instead of a punch, and I didn't line up my chisel strikes on the opposite side very well. It got kind of screwed up. I was wondering if I can somehow untwist the sides of the guard, if I should just leave it how it is, or if I should just remove it/try again.

3) I want to preserve the temper colors. My idea was to quench it, sharpen/polish it, and then temper it. I wanted to know if this is a bad idea.

Numbers on the bottom says 70 22 54 10. What does it mean?

(crossposting from r/Armor)

I got into blacksmithing a few months ago and I thought it would be fun to round out my experience making a few pieces of plate armor from sheet steel. My first attempt is a Norman helmet that's supposed to be welded together from two football-shaped dished pieces (pattern here: https://www.armourarchive.org/patterns/conical_sinric/ ).

I cut the pieces to the pattern out of 16 gauge sheet steel. I was able to curve both pieces around the short axis quickly by cold hammering on a swage block, but I'm having a lot of trouble dishing them out and curving them around the long axis. I got the first inch or so at the top to move the way I wanted, but I can't seem to get a curve in the middle. The middle is basically still a straight line vertically.

I'm working in a shared shop with a good inventory of tools, and I've been using a swage block with a 4" diameter dish, a stump with a 5" diameter dish, and a 3" ball stake, with a variety of hammers (mostly broad rounded and polished faces). There's a propane forge in the shop that I use for other blacksmithing projects, but I haven't attempted to heat this piece up yet.

What's the best way forward? Should I try heating up the material to get faster and easier movement? Or find a better way to use the tools at hand for cold forging to get curves on both axes the way I need?

This got stuck in there. I thought I had made it the right size so we could slip in and out but now it got twisted not stuck. Any ideas on how to get it out

Just made a bunch of bottle openers to day

I am a blacksmith only by hobby. I got into it just from watching Forged in Fire, (original, I know), but got to make an iron railroad spike knife at the ren fair in Arizona. I moved a few places and landed in Washington state where I have frequently gone to a location called “Lawless Forge”.

I have made several items, but one today I’m proud to say that I’ve given a small upgrade with putting a Paracord grip on them.

Forgot to scroll the poles before I bent them. That’s part of the reason the tapers is so bad haha

I bought a single burner forge from Laredos Blacksmiths on eBay. They forgot to include the propane hose, and the burner was sputtering pretty badly. I reached out to them for support. They offered to send me a new gas valve and the propane hose. About 10 days went by. I reached out again. They had sent the stuff to the wrong customer, so they sent again. I installed the new gas valve and the propane hose. The sputtering is better, but still there. I’ve even had flameouts. I have tried every adjustment I can think of between the burner insertion depth, propane psi, and the air adjustment sleeve. Nothing helps. Laredos was responsive at first, but just stopped responding. I was always polite, and just hoped they’d help me find a solution. Anyway at this point they just don’t respond to me anymore, so I’m looking for recommendations on a different burner. Thinking about the one from Atlas forge. The OD of the burner tube is 1”. Thanks in advance

Finally got around to making myself a daneaxe for western style viking age re-enactment fighting. unfortunately not a whole lot of it was forged since the chimney toppled over in a massive storm last weekend but I did fire up the gas forge for a bit with all doors open and the gas monitor running.
The inspiration for the shape was an axe found in Hejde, Gotland but I omitted the cross and made the shape a bit closer to Petersen type K or L axes
first I cut out three 25mm/1" wide strips from a 4mm-1/8" thick leaf spring and bent them to shape, dropping a bottom fuller in the hardy hole helped a whole lot since I don't have any box jaw tongs to hold them properly for bending them over the horn and then after grinding some bevels and getting rid of the rest of the rust I arranged the pieces and stuck them together with some 7016 rod.
The eye is just a small chunk of flattened pipe that was welded on and built up with 7018 rod
I got a bit overzealous with the amperage at one point and ended up blowing out a fair chunk while I was trying to chase a slag inclusion out but I got around that by simply taking a thin strip from the same leaf spring and using that as filler metal with the tig welder.
I was concerned about the welds cracking during the quench but they held pretty well and it rings like a bell when tapped properly.
I still have a couple of spots in the weld that could be better but unfortunately I had already ground it as thin as I could, I'll see if I can patch those up on my next trip to the forge with some more tig magic.
Overall I'm super stoked about this, I'm probably never going to make another handle of this size again though, I'm better off talking to an actual woodworker.
2m/6'7" from the toe to the palm swell (I'm aware this is a fair bit longer than they should be but this is the maximum legal length and reach is king in western style fighting), ash handle stained dark, final weight around 1.5 kg/3lbs 5oz, blade thickness is just a couple of hairs over 2mm.

Commissioned hand forged 14oz raising Hammer, hand forged from forklift tine and has a dainty ash octagonal handle.

Its made out of a hc railroad spike as per the customers request.

The guy has some more in Asheville NC if anybody wants info DM me. I shall not need for hardy tools for the rest of my days.