wrought iron for guards

[potterknives]

I'm wordering if anyone on the form has used wrought iron,and is it possiable to etch the wrought iron and get any pattern from etching.I've been using the forums for a few years and don't recall seeing anything on it..p.s. I think this is a great site and i recommend it to all that are interested in knives.thanks alot Potter

 

[Ed Caffrey]

I have used in many times for "S" type guards on bowies. Real wrought iron should be forged at high temps to avoid cracks and splitting. The main structure you will see when it's etched is a series of slightly wavey lines, which is the silcon slag that is present in all wrought iron. I've found that an etch, followed by a light polishing, and then bluing creates very attractive and interesting hardware for knives.

 

[Reg ELLERY]

I made my first knife dollars out of wrought iron. In western Australia the very old (around 100 year) railway dog spikes are wrought iron. You can forge them, keep them hot or they will split.
Polish the up to 1200 grit on the blade and they come up with varied patterns. If you can twist witout splitting you can get a beter pattern. I used copper sulphate to etch but acid feric etc all work.

They do not hold an edge I only sold them as letter openers.

 

[Will52100]

I've only used it a couple of times, but there's something anouther smith showed me that I've got to try.

Terry Vandivier(Spelling?) showed me a dagger with a heavily etched wrought iron gaurd, look like heavily weathered wood. I think he said he etched for two or three days. He buffed the gaurd and the outer metal was mirrored, while the deep creveses were dark. Kinda hard to discribe, but looked awsome.

Also the more you forge it the finner the pattern gets, and like was said forge it at a very high heat or it'll split.