A Measure of Hardness

The heavy-point spike I forged required testing against something sturdier than dry dirt. I hauled it to the base of an old corrugated steel bay door where decades of weather had left the bottom runner encrusted in stubborn grit. Pinning the iron hex counterweight with my left boot, I drove the hardened awl point downward into the seam of a discarded aluminum license plate half-buried in the soil. The alloy yielded with a clean, sharp puncture. No bending, no structural compromise. To secure the grip for future use, I wrapped a strip of weathered rubber wire around the balance point, pressing my heated knuckle against the overlap until the rubber vulcanized into a rigid, textured handle.