Patent ID: 8683842

Claim:
A method for manufacturing a railroad spike, the method comprising: preparing a metal blank having a substantially circular cross-section; subjecting the metal blank to at least one cold heading process and at least one cold extrusion process to form, without any hot forging process, a railroad spike having (a) a circular head with a fillet at its bottom side that is angled to engage a railroad tie plate or rail base and (b) a non-threaded shank with a substantially smooth surface, a substantially square cross-section having a symmetric shape, and a chiseled tip with a sufficiently sharp cutting edge to cut wood fibers in a crosstie, wherein the cutting edge is substantially in parallel with a diagonal of the substantially square cross-section to avoid splitting the wood fibers in the crosstie; and coating outer surfaces of the finished railroad spike with an anti-corrosion chemical such that the coated chemical is directly exposed to the crosstie into which the railroad spike is inserted.