Questions about working W/wrought iron

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Dixieblade57

Joined
Jun 20, 2007
Messages
1,361
I have a knife that I am planning on using wrought iron for the guard on a large bowie. I have plans to forge to shape; this will include some twisting of the iron. This will be my first experience with using WI. My understanding that is that it needs to be forged at red hot temp, if I am remembering correctly!

Is that correct and can someone give me the optimal temp to forge at?

Is there a problem with letting the piece cool off completely in case I am not able to forge to finish in one setting?

Also once I have the piece forged to shape do I need to normalize and if so what is the best process for normalizing WI?

Does the piece need to be HTed afterward or will it be OK as is?

That is all the questions I can think of right off hand but I reserve the right to ask more at a later date and time! :D
 
I would forge it hotter than red. Up in the orange/yellow transition range. If it is forged too cold it can form splits.
Letting it cool off and reheating it isn't a problem. It has been done to that piece before.
Since WI isn't hardened it doesn't need to be normalized, the internal stresses are minimal.

Wayne Suhrbier
 
Needs to be very hot, you will know if its not hot enough, it will start to come apart.
the good news is it will weld back together easily. The more you manipulate it the less texture you end up with.
the grainy layered look is what your after so dont heat and beat too much.
I do like to twist the stuff. I think it looks cool.


Greg Shahan
 
Hey Bud,
Glad to see you postin!! Do you have enough WI? I have a few pieces that I was given if you need some.
 
Thanks for the answers everyone. After I posted this I talked to someone else that told me it needed to worked at hotter that red hot, and they basically told me what Greg was saying about that you will know if its not hot enough.

I really do appreciate the advice you can get on this site. When you are working with something that you are new at it really helps to know that you are headed in the right direction before starting (IE the right temp for working RI)!

Railrider I bought an custom order of wrought from a company that was doing a salvage of an old Grain elevator on the Great Lakes, last year. They sent the order USPS Priority Mail, when I got it the box looked it had been thru WW3, and was torn open. More than half of my order was missing. I called the lady that was in charge of the salvage and told her what had happend. She promptly replaced the entire order, even though I had told her what pieces were missing. The next Priority Mail Box came with a chunk of conver belt wrapped around it and taped to the box to keep the box from ripping out.
About two weeks later I get home one day to find a prioity mail box on my door. It had the missing pieces from the first order in it with a note from the USPS saying that during there investigation they had recovered the pieces that had been lost out of the first box.
I called the place I had ordered the WI from and told her about what had happened and that if they would cover shipping I would send it back to them. She laughed and said, "they had already gotten paid for the first order by the USPS insurance that they had on it, just keep it"!:eek::D

Just to keep them in mind the next time I needed to order some. You bet I will, that is great customer realations, a free order!:thumbup::D


Morale of the story it does pay too be an honest person! So I have a fair supply of WI at the time, thanks for the offer though.
 
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