My first attempt at forge welding railroad track went sideways fast

I picked up a piece of old railroad track from a scrapyard about 2 months ago. Thought I'd try forge welding it into a simple knife blank like I saw some guys do online. First try didn't stick at all, just fell apart when I hit it. Turns out the manganese content in that steel is way too high for regular forge welding. I learned I need to use known steel like 1080 or 5160 for welding projects. Has anyone else run into this problem with mystery steel?

2 comments

2 Comments

lisa_bennett20h ago

Happened to me with an old coil spring I grabbed off a truck. Thought it was just regular spring steel, but it was some weird alloy that wouldn't weld for anything. Ended up with a pile of cracked pieces and a bruised hand from hitting it so hard. Mystery steel is a gamble, especially with railroad stuff.

logan64818h ago

Yeah I used to think any steel would weld but @lisa_bennett changed my mind.