Picked up a dozen hiking the railroad tracks yesterday. Seems I ought to be able to do something creative with them. I usually don’t create purely for art’s sake, I want it to be practical.
I can wire wheel the rust off but can’t heat it enough to work that way.
You might be able to clean the rust off the spikes with electrolysis, do it outside though as it creates chlorine gas.
Done that before, but for such a simple form, the wire on my bench grinder makes short work of it.