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I Forge Iron

Wierdly strong metal


Damascus Mike

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That is what I was thinking. Some of the rebar was re-rolled railroad rail as were the iron frame box springs you still see.

I cut one of the old bed frames before I knew this and used the material to make a stand for a portable coal forge. I had a misserable experience cutting and welding the stuff and blamed my self.

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whats that?


It is a texured steel bar available from companys like Wagner. It is run through a mill cold, which puts those marks in it. It is supposed to look like it was hammered. I doubt it actualy has a high carbon content, it is just workhardened from being cold formed. If you want to be sure either aneal it or do a spark test.
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well u see it takes ages to get up to heat,wen i anealed it it was still extreamly stong and i flatened out a piece over a hole day and i put it in the vise and bent it to about a 50 degree angle and it shot back like a saw blade does.i know its high in carbon because it puts out a horrible amount of carbon.i made a chisel from it and i havent even hardened it yet and ive used it in concrete,metal and it still has a sharp edge without any dents or damage done to it.i doubt it that its an old form of re bar because its got a high pitch pin when u hit it and its very bright with a spark test

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Considering your location I would not be suprised if it was chrome Molly steel re rolled from one of the scarped ww II ships.

Australia and New Zeland salvage a lot of that material for darn near everything after the war because it was cheaper than Importing form europe and USA.

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well u see it takes ages to get up to heat,wen i anealed it it was still extreamly stong and i flatened out a piece over a hole day and i put it in the vise and bent it to about a 50 degree angle and it shot back like a saw blade does.i know its high in carbon because it puts out a horrible amount of carbon.i made a chisel from it and i havent even hardened it yet and ive used it in concrete,metal and it still has a sharp edge without any dents or damage done to it.i doubt it that its an old form of re bar because its got a high pitch pin when u hit it and its very bright with a spark test


old rebar is high in carbon some new stiff isnt all that low carbon too
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it must be welding heat or it wont move any metal


That would make sense if you're meaning a 'high welding' -- bright yellow to white -- (as opposed to 'low welding').

Remember that for heavier sections of stock -- over say a half inch (12mm), as this seems to be -- it needs to 'soak' in the fire for a while otherwise the core of the bar won't be as hot as the outside. It's like cooking a chicken; if the oven's at too high a temperature the outside can be burned to a crisp but the inside still be that 'gastro-intestinally interesting' pink stage... Considering that you seem to be getting a lot of scaling I wonder if the fire (or the part you're using) is oxidising. You can get a hot fire easily this way but it's easy to heat the bar too quickly so there's not enough time for the middle of the bar to get as hot; the outside of the chicken is cooked but the middle is still pink.
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