金/钅metal and 隹 a bird compose 锥 an awl. An awl 锥 is made of metal 金/钅and it gradually gets thicker from the tip to the end ( like the shape of a bird’s beak ).
Since the semantic component of 锥 is 金, we can say 铁锥. The meaning of 锥 was originally just used as an awl and later it also could mean things with the similar shape to that of an awl such as a cone. In modern Chinese, it can also be used as a verb (to bore, prick, ), for example, 锥个眼儿 bore a hole with an awl.
Check out the radical 钅，which is a very powerful component to form characters. There are about 250 characters are in the family of 钅. Most of the proper names related to metal have the semantic component 钅.