Need advice on how to shorten a crow bar

I've got a crow bar that I would like to shorten by about 30cm (to fit in my tray back) and put a spike tip on it.

Any advice on how to do this?  I only have limited tools and I understand that crow bars are hardened steel.

Would the spike tip need to be hardened?  How would that be done?

Perhaps my best option is to drop by a metal shop but I am interested if anyone has an idea on this!

cheers.

Angle grinder with a cut off wheel then grind down to a spike on an industrial sized bench grinder. Just keep it reasonably cool by periodically dipping in water. Shouldn't be any need to re-temper if kept cool enough.
If you did want to just reheat it until "red hot" & dunk into water to cool rapidly - this will harden it. Then to temper, to remove some of the brittleness, reheat the tip of your spike until it turns a bluish colour & let it cool slowly on a heat conductive surface I.e. another cold piece of steel.

Need advice on how to shorten a crow bar

My method is not as simple as that already given, but i'll put it to ya anyway.   

Grow taller.     

Narrawa wrote:

Need advice on how to shorten a crow bar

My method is not as simple as that already given, but i'll put it to ya anyway.   

Grow taller.  

Makes my suggestion to use it a lot more seem almost sensible   

Wayne. 

Ha! Ha! funny fellas!!  Maybe I asked for that, but it did seem a fair question!

Problem is that the tray back on my ute is a bit short, so I thought about adjusting the bar...so I can get it nice and neat in a safe place and not floating around the tray.

Thanks for the good suggestions!

Hey Narrawa - I'm gunna use it in WA this month and June.  Heading off next week.  So lock up ya gold!  cheers.

That temper( Blue colour) sounds too hot to me. I would suggest to temper after hardening sand off scale from the hardening and heat with oxy at about 3 or 4 inches above the tip. Watch the temper colours travel down the freshly sanded area towards the tip, once a straw colour gets to the tip of the crow bar quench in water and you are done.
This Temper serves two purposes it hardens the tip to about 58-60 Rockwell hardness and gives the shaft of the bar more of a temper to give it ability to pry and be a bit more springy.
Steve.

Here is what I did:
I have limited tools so I opted to take it to a iron worker near canberra.  As I watched he chopped the bar taking off about 25 cms, heated the cut top 30 cms red hot in a small gas furnace, beat out the chisel point on an anvil, reheating as he went and shaped the chisel point.  then he cooled the tip in a tub of water (about 5cms on the tip only).  This hardens the tip steel.  A bit of a rubdown with a file and the result was one perfectly shortened heavy crowbar with a very hard tip.  We used the off cut -- about 25cms -- to make a short chisel.  The whole process took about an hour and cost me $50 and I think it was a good spend.  I have had the old bar for years -- it is quite a heavy one -- not the normal fencing bar from bunnings.  The Crowbar is now perfect length and will last me my lifetime!  you can google the place: the thawa forge.  The smithy -- Karim -- teaches people to make all manner of knives and anything out of steel basically.  Mission accomplished!
Thanks for the inputs.  cheers.