Wrought iron project

Metalhead0483

Metalhead0483

Joined
Jan 17, 2008
Messages
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I got my hands on some mid-19th century wrought iron round bar the other day. I've always kind of wanted to do a wrought iron blade with welded steel cutting edge in 12th century style so I started to forge it out to rectangle last night. I had heard that wrought iron can be difficult stuff to work with, but Jesus... I honestly think I'm going to have to redo my gas forge to get the temps high enough (which I admit I needed to do anyway, but still...)

Anyone have any tips/tricks for me? Other than working it at way higher temps than I'm used to that is. Anything I should avoid doing?

When the time comes, if I can get the forging down right, I was planning on using 1075 for the edge steel but I'm worried about the weld during the quench with the two dissimilar metals. Should I go with a lower carbon edge steel than 1075? Maybe 1060 or even 1045? This obviously isn't going to be a high-performance piece, but I would like it to be usable as a light-duty knife...

Thanks!
 
Yeah I was doing some research and saw discussions on different grades of wrought iron. Interesting discussion, but nobody was really able to tell me how to tell the difference between good iron and the lower grade. What I got was more or less "you'll be able to tell once you start forging." Heh, thanks for that, big help... :P

Anyway, I got an adjustable reg for my forge yesterday and tested it out. Should be able to get to temp now. I'm going to give it a shot tonight and see what happens...

Lieblad, that's pretty cool. Through my research it seems quite a few of the lower end knives of the period in question were made that same way, with the steel just scarf welded on one side. I might start with one using that method and go from there. Sort of see what happens. What steel were you using for the edges?
 
1075 should be fine, I regularly make wrought san mai with 1095 or w2, and they require much more violent quench.

Just make sure you're forging the wrought at a high heat (yellow), and have proper temps to weld and you should have a problem, it sticks easily.
 
Work it hot, if it gets to cold it can split but that depends upon the iron..Ive got wagon rim that will splinter like wood. Ive got some wrought iron bolts that are very refined and show almost no pattern when etched..
work it hot,hot,hot...Also be careful when forging the ends of your bar, that can be your worst area to split.....Wrought welds beautifully. it sticks like nothing else :thumbup:
 
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