Hit 500 railroad spike knives this week and it made me question my whole approach

I just finished my 500th railroad spike knife since I started forging seriously about 4 years ago. That number surprised me because I never thought I'd get that far with such a simple project. But here's the debate I've been chewing on: are railroad spike knives actually worth the effort for practice, or are they holding me back from harder work? On one hand, they teach you basic shaping and heat control without wasting good steel. On the other hand, I've spent probably 200 hours on spikes that mostly end up as yard art or gifts. I could have used that time learning to forge better Damascus or something with actual edge holding. My neighbor who's been smithing since the 90s says spikes are a waste past the first 50. Has anyone else hit a count like this and had to decide whether to move on or refine what you already know?

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hugo_jones223d ago

500 spikes in 4 years, wow. That's like making one every 3 days if you count setup time, that really puts it into perspective for me. I bet your neighbor has a point about diminishing returns, but 200 hours of heat control practice isn't wasted if you learned to read steel color without a thermometer.