Forging Wrought Iron

[bobbywett]

Hi Everyone,

I just purchased about 8 lbs of old 1" round wrought iron. It is supposed to be the good stuff with siliceous slag, whatever that means? How do I forge this stuff into a usable flat shape for guards and pommels? What temperature should i shoot for? Is there a special technique I should use?

Thanks,

Bobby

 

[P. McKinley]

Bobby - I'm no expert but.... I read a similar post a while back where it was explained that wrought needs to be near-yellow hot to forge successfully without the threat of cracking.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Forge it HOT and don't forge in the lower red zones at all.

 

[bobbywett]

Thanks Guys...I was guessing high heat would be the way to go.

 

[cbr900son]

Forge it HOT and don't forge in the lower red zones at all and dont forget to post pics of the final results or you will be band from the forums!

Ok its fixed

 

[sunshadow]

I have found that high yellow heat works best with wrought iron, get down into steel forging temps and you will start to get splintering. This makes it really interesting when I am making composite blades with a wrought iron spine and steel edge (13th- early 15th century construction)

-Page

 

[Sam Salvati]

Forge it HOT and don't forge in the lower red zones at all.

LOL I wouldn't forge in the lower orange!

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Perhaps that was worded poorly.
What I meant was forge it hot ( in the yelow zones) and don't forge it in the lower (lower than the yellow range) red zones .

 

[Raymond Richard]

If this is wrought iron that came from old anchor chain its a lot easier to forge than say wagon wheel. My understanding is there were several different grades of wrought iron and the anchor chain being close to the top of the ladder. I found the anchor chain holds together better than the lessor grades.

 

[Kentucky]

No lower than yellow..Yellow white works best Ive found..