New and Improved Railroad Spike Knife

Everyone knows railroad spike knives are cool.
Even the great Tai Goo, the "Eddie Van Halen of knifemaking" makes them. And his are gorgeous in the extreme.
The problem is that every RRS knife I've seen, while I'm sure a well-crafted unit and perfectly functional as a knife, suffers from the same problem. Their coolness comes from the "Hey, that's made out of a railroad spike" factor. Really, minus the spike-head, it's just a piece of steel. All of which leaves this steel handle. It can be twisted or tricked out in a multitude of ways but it's still a hunk of steel and therefore, uncomfortable, slippery and no fun, especially in cold weather.
To address this problem I offer my "New and Improved" version. The knife pictured is a bit gnarly but that's because It's still in the prototype stage. I'm not entirely happy with the handle yet. More later.
Now, the step-by-step...
First, A VIDEO! Let me beg your indulgence. I'm new at this vid thing so these first two have a rather l o n g period of "nothin' happenin'" in the begining. But, it's worth sitting through...I think.

The tool being used here is a "chop-fuller" made by the "Poorboy Blacksmith's Tools" guy on E(vil)-Bay. One of the best 20 buckses I've ever spent although now he'll nail you $25 for one.
Anyway using this guy you fuller down grooves in the shank of the spike to a thickness of 1/4" or so. Do it four times and it'll look like this:
Now the task becomes to even out these corrugations. Because I'm lazy, I call upon the tender touch of the lovely and talented Miss Streisand. Why did I name my power hammer after Barbara Streisand?
Well, she's loud, high-maintenance, not pretty in any conventional sense...and because the first syllable of the word "barbell" is visible between the feet of the anvil.












So, without further adieu, let me introduce, a close personal friend and a wonderful human being - really we can forgive "Yentl" even "A Star is Born" - the lovely and talented....


The boy's grown since we saw him last...Now we begin flattening the blade portion. If you hammer from corner-to-corner rather than on the flat, you'll have an easier time squeezing width out of it.From here on it's just a matter of using the cross-peen to widen, working the point down and then thinning the edge. I was trying for a Sheffield style Bowie like my prototype butt didn't quite get there.
Finally, Barbara's curtain call:

And here we have the finished product, pictured next to its older brother. The guard is made from the tip of another spike, forged into shape with the idea of completing the whole visual, RRS thing. I cut a slit in it, slipped in onto the blade from the bottom and filled the gap at the top with weld which left a nice surface to texture for a thumb rest.
It seems that it will require some sort of flexible handle material, hence my experimentation, as the pommel/handle interface is a bit awkward.