silverclaws

A bit belated, but I now have a picture of the stuff in question. The picture shows one of the ''as found '' links, minus a bit, one of the links after burning off the rust in the forge, and final bit, the straight piece, is one of my first attempts at forging the stuff, one can notice where the crumbling has started and I backed off. Another piece I had, it just crumbled away into bits which when cool, just looked like bits of orangey brown earth. Just to note, the straight bit on the photograph, has not rusted since I did it, back in the spring. All I did with it post forge, was sand blast it and scrub it with a wire brush, the finish is as is, a light grey bordering on silver and rust free.

Spark Test ? I assume the metal is wrought, with all the already gone to earth crumbly bit burned off in the forge, and one link sand blasted, I can see the way the thing was made, it has a clear scarf joint at one end I assume to be fire welded. But to be honest, I am not au fait with many hot working processes, as my normal discipline, is non ferrous metals, silver, copper, brass etc. All I know about a spark test, is for deciding whether a piece of metal has carbon in it, by watching the sparks from a grinder. I will try and post a photo of one of the links tommorrow, in the hope the visual appearance might give some clues. One bit of metal I did manage to forge out of it, is not with me at the moment, that sits in a drawer at college. I will get that and post a photo after Monday. One thing I have discovered though, this stuff is fairly corrosion resistant, as, bare metal just hanging around develops a skin of rust in no time, especially in my place, it being damp, ( constant battle to keep my burnishers pit free ) but the forged bit hasn't started to rust, though the chain link I have here, has rusted a bit in places, but no way as much as I would have thought it would have done.

Ok, I have just found a description of what my lump of sea recovered iron chain does when heating to red heat and attempting forging, it crumbles, and yes at the visible grain lines, called I believe red short in metalsmithing terms, high sulphur bearing metal. As to where this sulphur came from, could it be in the metal as it was forged, or did it come later by being immersed in estuary mud for a hundred years or two, I don't know. Though I can use the metal like this for another purpose, that of wonderfully organic looking jewellery, I would like to know, is there a process that can be applied to increase the plastic properties of the metal and reduce the crumbling at red heat. Hmm, come to think of it, exactly how old is this chain, was it not the invention of the reverberatory furnace by one of the Darby's in the eighteenth century that first was able to create iron without high levels of sulphur included. If my chain was first forged and it included the high sulphur content, it might be pre 1800's. But, is there any way to make the stuff more plastic in a basic forge ?

Hi Matt, I am just outside Plymouth, attending Plymouth College of Art, formerly PCAD. Do I recognise you from the British Blades website ?

Ok, as mentioned in my first thread, I reclaim iron out of a tidal estuary, from wooden ships long rotted away, the iron work and anchor chains being fairly easy to find at low tide, a bit of grubbing around in mud and they can be dragged out. Now my recent stuff I tried to reforge into something useful, well at least blanks for things to be made out of, but in forging, I noticed some unusual effects; Heating the metal to what I know is the correct temperature for mild steel forging, straw yellow, and beating the stuff to shape it, the metal breaks, almost like crumbles at the edges and bits break off. It can be shaped, and the result is the lovely lines of grain very prominent in the metal, it cooled and polished, it just looks like a piece of worn wood painted silver grey. But my concern is the crumbling of the metal at yellow heat, am I forging iron wrong, or is it likely the iron has lost some of it's properties by being submerged in saltwater laden estuary mud ? I do like the grained wood effect, and have plans to use this natural appearance as a constituent part in my jewellery making, wood, but not.

Hi, I have just joined, as I am sort of trying to teach myself forgework for the purpose of a college project, that of making iron jewellery. The iron I am recovering from an estuary, where there lies many sunk and long rotted away ships dating back 200 years or so. The wood has largely gone, but the iron remains so I get it for the purpose of college work. Now, I have tried to use the college's coke forges, but the pieces of metal I am working with, some being about quarter inch diameter at the start, get lost in forge on a regular basis, especially when others are poking around in them for their own work. So, I have plans to build my own forge, a small affair for the purposes of jewellery work. I am planning it to be fuelled by coke, as the college is a free supply of that, but I need something small, has anyone any suggestions ? I have tried working the metal with a torch, this does work, but is definately not safe, hooking a burning torch in the crook of the arm so I can beat the metal, scary !!! I have to consider health and safety in what I do, because of the college, hooking a torch in the arm, is not good, especially as most who use the workshops are definately not workshop aware.