I’m finally back from a summer traveling and ready to start a new project. While visiting family, my nephew asked if I could make him a coat rack using railroad spikes.
Can I? Well, yes, I think I can.
A couple of days ago, I heated up a spike and did a test bend. I wanted to see if I could duplicate the bend with all four spikes. I ended up clamping the spike in the vice, spike pointing up, and hammered it into a hook shape. I think if I clamp each spike the same and watch my angle when hammering, I will get similar hooks.
Here’s the Plan
First, I’m going to heat the other three spikes up and hot-brush them.
My supply of railroad spikes is used and rusty. I enjoy the abuse they’ve seen, and I think it will add to the nostalgia of the piece, but I also want to remove the rust before bending them. Once bent, it will be harder to get into every nook and cranny.
When I have finished cleaning up the spikes, I will forge the hook. Basically, I’ll bend them each until they match. Not much forging here.
There will be forging, however, on each end of the coat rack.
I am going to make the coat rack out of the spikes and reclaimed lumber. There will be a back and a top to this piece. To tie it all together, I am going to forge a couple of angle brackets that will be located at each end of the rack.
When it’s done, it will look like a shelf with four hooks underneath to hang coats.
I’ll work the rest of the details out as I go and in the next post show the finished product.
Material
4 – Rusty old Railroad Spikes
2 – 1” x 12” flat stock (for the brackets)
2 – 1” x 8” flat stock (simple curve to add detail to the brackets)
Roughly 4 linear feet of reclaimed lumber.
Hardware to secure the hooks and brackets to the wood.
Final Thoughts
I have an image in my head of how I want this coat rack to turn out, and that’s all I usually need. This is a simple project, so hopefully, I will have a finished project by this weekend.
Also, I am really excited to work on this project. Depending on how it turns out, I will probably be making a few more of these for friends and family.
