working w/wrought iron

[David Stifle]

Something different about your experience with wrought and mine.
I've been using it extensively for over a decade. The stuff I have was made in 1903 - I have about a 1/2 ton. It spent its entire life on a river through all seasons of exposure.
I can literally rub the surface rust off with my thumb and find shiny iron below. The rust has no depth whatsoever.
I'm an avid deer hunter and have been for 45 years. I hunt, I fish I camp and do everything with a knife with wrought hardware.
Any time there's even a slightest bit or dot of rust, it cleans off easily with some 0000 and a drop of oil.
The reason it was used in many cases in certain types of structures was because of its ability to RESIST rust.
There were many grades of wrought.

And when it comes to gates and railings and that sort of thing, most are simply mild steel and called "wrought" because of their design - not the material.

You're right, Karl. I've never seen wrought like you describe.

 

[islandblacksmith]

...sounds like that stuff must be almost pure (elemental) iron...definitely low phosphorous and sulfur...and well worked under the hammer to squeeze everything else out...
good stuff, nice to have a half ton of anything from the same batch!

 

[Karl B. Andersen]

This is an example of the wrought I use.
It was the connective components - as opposed to the structural, weight bearing components - of a bridge that collapsed into the river near my home when I lived in Illinois.
The bridge was built in 1903, so this stuff remained exposed to the elements for over a century.
I do little forging on it to reduce inclusions, or "squeeze everything else out", as I like the way the voids and inclusion get etched out with FeCl.
I do mostly stock removal.
It's easy to remove what little surface rust there is with a wire brush.
This is maybe 15 seconds cleaning with my drill:

 

[coldsteelburns]

^^^ Man Karl! I would looove to have a half ton of that perfect looking wrought iron, and in that thickness and width, all ready to be worked into any type of fitting by stock removal alond, heck, even just one of those bars would last me for a long time! Wanna trade?! :foot:

~Paul

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My YT Channel Lsubslimed

 

[Karl B. Andersen]

Wanna trade?! :foot:
~Paul

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My YT Channel Lsubslimed

I literally picked up about 2 flat beds worth of this iron when the road company pulled that bridge out of the river.
I know I sold more than a ton of it.
I sold it to help me get through the winter 8 or nine years ago.
When I reached a certain point I decided what was remaining would need to see me through my knife making career.
What's left is mine.
Unless you had something REALLY!! special to trade for.

 

[coldsteelburns]

I deffinitely hear ya man. Hmm, well I recently acquired some 7/8" x 11" Don Hanson W2!

~Paul

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My YT Channel Lsubslimed

 

[MEGALODON]

Walter Sorrells has a good video that may be helpful on making a katana guard out of wrought iron
http://youtu.be/_kpa0uxSuOU

 

[Salem Straub]

Another tip, on working with wrought- after etching, be sure and neutralize the heck out of it. Like, soak it in windex/ammonia for a while. Then water, then I force dry it by warming over a hot plate etc., then when it's very warm to the touch I hit it with light oil all over so that soaks into the surface.

My experience has been that the porous surface of wrought can hold onto etchant and give you a surprise rust bloom later on, when you thought it had been fully neutralized.

Also, I have forged some wrought at too low of a heat and had it crumble. It just splits apart. Seemed like a low grade, the stuff I've mostly used has a reasonable forging heat range and no splitting.

This wrought looks a fair amount like Karl's, I think- found the stuff pictured here as a bar of random scrap in an apple orchard dump. I'm always keeping an eye out, I stumbled over a big thick wagon tire while hiking through a creek bottom the other day. Of course I schlepped it back to the truck...