In terms of their metallurgy, my understanding is that spikes are pretty low carbon. That makes sense; you wouldn't want one to fracture the rail while pounding or snap off during stress or cold and leave a rail loose. Blacksmiths like to play with them as "found materials" but they have the means to work more carbon into the steel to make a passable cutting edge.
The regular ones are about only 0.1% carbon, the ones labeled HC goes up to 0.3% or so, both too low to be hardened properly for anything with an edge. I've seen a few tomahawks made with them but they have piece of 1095 inserted for edge.
I have a few lying around, wish I had a forge to make something out of them, 1095 is pretty cheap to buy.
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