[TheForge] A small score - railroad spikes.

[Dave Belfer-Shevett]

Well, the winter is gone, and its time to ramp up supplies and tools for
spring smithing.  I hope to get SOMETHING accomplished this year.

I was intrigued by the sculpted railroad spikes I've seen on a few
websites, and decided that might be a nice project to work on.
Remembering that an abandoned rail line was only a mile away, Zach (my 4
1/2 yr old son) and I set off this evening with a canvas bag.

I remember reading several suggestions by folks to 'be careful' about
picking up railroad materials - the rail lines really dont like it.  I
believe the owner of this line went out of business 40+ years ago, and
most of the spikes were rattling around in their ties, so were easy to
just reach down and pick up.

I got perhaps 25 of them, all straight, with unrusted heads (aside from
normal exposure).  The condition of the 'body' will be in question though
until I can get to the grinder and clean them up.  Banging them on the
rail disloged a lot of decay, but there seemed to be good material
underneath.  I'll let folks know how it works out.

There are perhaps 3-400 of these spikes easily accessible along a 2 mile
stretch of abandoned line.  This is way out in the sticks, I think if
folks are interested in them, I could get a couple handfuls easily.

	-dbs

-- 
------------------.--------.
Dave Belfer-Shevett\ KB1FWR \
www.homeport.org    >--------`------------------------------------
shevett@pobox.com  / 28. A conclusion is the place where you got  \
------------------<               tired of thinking.               |
                   \______________________________________________/