It’s no secret that high-quality blades that are highly durable usually use damask or damask steel. However, even with a regular railway crutch, you can make a fairly good knife if you competently approach its machining and hardening.
Manufacturing process
First of all, you need to forge a workpiece of a suitable shape from a railway crutch - and this operation is performed in several steps. First, the handle of the future knife is formed, and then the working part (blade). Then the surface of the workpiece is additionally ground on an emery wheel.
Since the steel from which railway crutches are made is not suitable for the manufacture of knives, it must be additionally cemented. To do this, the workpiece must be placed in a steel mold with "cement" and subjected to heat treatment at high temperatures. As a result, the strength of steel will increase to 62 Rockwell units.
Next, a standard hardening of the knife is carried out, and then its further machining: surface grinding, grinding, polishing and sharpening of the cutting edge. The handle of this knife is made in the style of "Pineapple Twist" and looks very aesthetically pleasing, therefore no wooden linings are required.
Thanks to cementing, steel gained additional strength and hardness, and is able to cut glass - you can watch the step-by-step process of making a knife from a railway crutch in a video on our website.
