As a general rule, RR spikes make a neat little novelty "knife", but the material is simply not suited to building a blade that is intended to cut anything. For years I have heard people claim that any spike with "HC" on it is a "high carbon"....it just isn't so. At least not from the perspective of it being hardenable.... a spike that is marked with "HC" will normally have NO MORE than .35% carbon....which is barely within the amount of carbon for a steel to be considered hardenable.
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