Iron, plain old iron - where to find?

[bnewberry]

Where does one find plain old iron such as is used in wrought iron fences?

I'd like to someday have a go at forge welding iron to steel like they did back when steel was more rare than iron.

[David Einhorn]

Flea markets, junk yards, EBay. Here and there. You just have to look around and keep your eyes open.

[MattBower]

"Wrought iron" is what you're looking for. The term "wrought iron" has a couple different meanings. These days, folks who don't know any better use it to refer to any decorative ferrous metal that has been forged -- or looks forged. But traditionally it referred to (normally) low carbon iron containing stringers if siliceous slag. "Wrought" referred to the process by which it was made, not the process by which it was worked into useful items. When I say you're looking for wrought iron, I'm using it in the second sense -- the one every blacksmith should use.

It's still pretty common stuff in many parts of the country (perhaps less so near you than in certain other parts of the country), if you know how to identify it.

Good info here: Realwroughtironco : About Wrought Iron : About Wrought Iron

[MattBower]

BTW, if all else fails you can buy some from Darren Ellis: Wrought Iron - Ellis Custom Knifeworks

[Mike Ameling]

There is a mill out of Sweden that is or was still making and selling real wrought iron in various standard sizes. Don't know if they are still in business. And one company had a special run of chemically pure iron made up into standard sizes by a modern steel mill. They called it PURE IRON. Chemically pure, no carbon and very little other metal alloys in it.

Most people find true wrought iron at scrap yards and farm sales - in the form of the iron rims from old wooden wagon wheels, or scrap from old bridges. The scrap from OLD bridges gives you better sizes of bars to work with - those old cage-type bridges with lots of cross braces. Those made up into the early 1900's were mostly wrought iron. And "some" very old re-rod was wrought iron - but pretty hard to find.

The knife making suppliers usually have small lots for sale - usually for making that nickel and wrought iron pattern welded damascus.

A number of people doing historical restoration work had started using that Pure Iron. It didn't have the "slag" inclusions, but better matched the original wrought iron they were repairing.

So check around with the scrap yards for some of those rims from wooden wagon wheels, or if they scrapped a really old bridge recently.

Mikey

[MattBower]

There's a company in England that's recycling antique wrought iron. They call themselves the Real Wrought Iron Company. I linked to them above.

In The Art of Blacksmithing, Alex Bealer talks about some Swedish company still making new wrought iron -- but that book is over forty years old. You won't find a source for new production wrought iron outside of a few small groups of nutty fanatics who make their own in bloomeries -- and usually don't sell it. (I've tried once, and I'll be giving it another shot this winter.) If you do, let me know.

Pure iron is quite expensive, and from what I've read it's different from wrought in a number of ways. (It corrodes much more quickly than wrought, for one thing.)

[Mike Ameling]

A bunch of years ago a friend got some true wrought iron from a slightly unusual source. He did some salvage at an old pickle factory - specifically the big wooden mixing/aging vats. They had large wrought iron bands holding them together - 1 1/2 inch thick round bars! I got a couple feet from him in a trade. Great stuff, but one drawback. Any time you heat a chunk up in the forge, the whole shop then smells like DILL PICKLES!

Last time I heard, he was talking about doing some salvage on a huge wharehouse up on the Great Lakes. All the rods holding the walls and beams together were wrought iron - starting at 2 inch diameter rods! He mentioned there would be several tons! And NO, it was not just going to the scrap yard!

One guy I knew used to pick up scrap out west at various old mining sights. They were old enough that a lot of the iron was real wrought iron.

But forget about most of those old fences. So many of them were made from cast iron.

Mikey

[Francis Trez Cole]

Check the classified ads on the abana web sight some times there are bars for sale.

[dlpierson]

Salvaging a huge old grain elevator these folks have found something around 500,000 lbs of wrought iron.
I've got a little bit of it.