Forging wrought iron?

scottickes

scottickes

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Oct 27, 2005
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I'm going to be using wrought iron on my guards for the first time. Any advice on forging it? How hot should I forge? Should I do any normalizing or annealing?
 
Wrought iron should be forged white hot, basically just about welding temperature. The amount of silicon in wrought iron makes the metal more or less self fluxing, and is what gives it the wood grain pattern when etched. They also make the metal fall apart if worked tooc old however. This is particularly true of the wrought iron that makes good guards, because the truth is poor quality wrought iron makes better guards because it etches the impurities to give a more visible grain. Highly refined wrought iron doesnt look much different than mild steel when etched. Low refined wrought iron will crumble apart and split apart if forged too cold.

There isnt really any need to aneal wrought iron because it doesnt have the carbon content to harden. That said, wrought iron will work harden when worked cold (not at a 'cold' forging heat, but actually cold)
 
I've always seen the instructions to weld wrought iron at " white heat" .So I searched for actual temperature . Only found one source - 2400-2800 F !
 
If I run into any problems I heat to to normal welding temperatures to comsolidate it, but most of the time I am around 1800F while forging. I think the white heat is too much for almost any metal. I also prefer the dirty stuff that etches out so nice. Folks are always trying to put me onto nice clean stuff, but I have no use for it, if I wanted that look I would just use steel. The real pretty stuff will often come apart a bit at first but after consolidated forges pretty much like any other steel and at the same temperatures. I think people run into problems when they forge at the temps that they forge their steel at if they tend to forge their steel too cool as well.
 
Thanks for the assistance! You guys are awesome.

This is older wrought iron. Will I get a nice pattern when etched if I don't forge it?
 
Absolutely! Forging will tend to refine it some and the pattern will slowly lose some of its definition.
If you can just do some stock removal to get what you want, you'll probably end up with a more distinctive pattern.
But, like everybody said - forge it HOT! (if you must forge)
 
I love using wrought iron. I have a small whale (fits in your palm) i rolled up from a little 1/4 inch square bar of wrought iron, didn't use too much flux at all if any. I love wrought and use it for VERY special occasion items, haven't used any on a blade yet, it is an absolute pleasure to work and i get the real throwback feeling when i work it. Just recently scored about 5 or 6 6 and 7 foot sections of 1/2 inch round.
 
This is from what looks like an old wagon wheel rim. The part around the outside. Has a gently arc to it. It's a little over two inches wide x 3/8" thick by about 8" long. I've been cutting pieces off of the end, which only have a very slight cup to them and will clean up nicely with stock removal.

I think I'll go down and start cleaning one of them up for my Christmas Gift Knife exchange knife!

Thanks for all of the help!!
 
will wrought iron work if you were just to mill a piece to shape? thank you!
 
Scott, On the wagon wheel just forge it flat a couple hundred degrees hotter than what you would steel. Then grind to shape. If I have a guard I need to put a bend in I'll shape it with a grinder first and then heat the area I want to bend with a torch and just touch it with a hammer.
 
To clarify things up a bit:
When the term "forging" is used by most smiths, they are referring to the physical reshaping of a piece of steel. Taking a piece of 1" round stock and making a 1/4" flat knife is "Forging" and is done real hot in WI (2300-2600).
When some folks say "forge it flat" or "forge a curve in it" they are talking about reshaping a piece of stock in one dimension only, as in flattening a piece of wagon wheel or curving an "S" guard. This is done at normal hot work temps, for WI about 1900-2200 should work if you are not trying to make any tight bends.
Stacy
 
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