Working wrought iron

J.Marsillo

J.Marsillo

Joined
Nov 8, 2000
Messages
1,255
I was lucky enough to find some wrought iron,so i tried drawing some down for a gaurd.the peice i am working is 7/8 round bar.While forging it down flat it kind of comes apart or delaminates,i'm not overheating or hitting it sloppy.is there a tecnique for working this stuff or do i just suck? I'd hate to ruin good WI.
 
sounds like you are working it too cold. the slag in the iron will splinter and pull the material apart if it isn't hot enough.
 
You need to run WI at an almost yellow heat to avoid delamination...had the same thing happen to me :)

-d
 
They are both correct!
You want this stuff almost yellow hot. When you hammer it, the MELTED slag should literally squirt out of it! The slag in the molten state is how it's forge welded to begin with.
 
Work it at, or very close to, welding heat, especially for heavy drawing. Some grades of wrought are more prone to splitting than others, these also usually look very dramatic.
 
If you get a delam just use a little flux and gently thunk it at yellow heat. It will weld up real nice without any sign it happened. I have forged pieces that have had 3-4 delams and when it is all finish ground and polished there is no sign of where they occured. Most of the delams happen when I am upsetting the piece. I am careful to hammer 45 deg to the angle your upsetting as an insurance measure. That seems to stop it before it starts (visibly).

Normalizing is also important. I normalize 3-4 times more often then with carbon steel. The upside is with the higher heat you get grain growth which enhances the pattern. Blacksmiths have been beating on the stuff for centuries so it can be done, it's just a bit more challenging but worth it.

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Some older smiths and in some books they talk about rotating the stock 90 degrees between hits, especially when drawing stock much smaller than the start. This doesn't seem necessary with modern steel but the wrought I've worked with it does help with the delamination.

Of course If you try to work wrought too cold it tends to delaminate regardless.
 
Thanks again guys I fixed it.I was working way too cold,for some reason i thought i would burn off the slag and end up with plain iron.Sometimes it's easyer not to think :confused: :D
 
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