Steel Question

[HWooldridge]

I also posted this over on Forgemagic and hope someone will know the answer.


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[Strine]

Excellent question HW. I don't know. The wire used to tie up concrete reinforcement is also very soft. It arrives on a site as a coil about 5 inches diam and about 3 inches wide with a 1 inch hole in the middle. Very handy stuff. Maybe the coil could be welded together as one big lump.

[HWooldridge]

Strine,

Yes - tying wire is also soft. I have welded baling wire in a lump just to play around but of course, it's a lot of work for little material. I was hoping we could collectively figure out how to get it in larger sizes.

[bruce wilcock]

the steel proberly is a ULCB ultra low carbon boron. used for cold heading and cold drawing.i have used it ,the drawbacks are the same as pure iron though not as soft , it will nearly bend under its own weght,being nearly as soft as anealed copper,and you will have to be carefull opening out punched holes you will have to split and open out rather than just drive a drift in ,and for out side iron work if the casual passer by finds out they can open out scrolls and bend rail tops the job will get trashed in short time, so you will have to pick the area with care, one advantage over pure iron its a lot more affordable

[irnsrgn]

tie wire for rebar is much softer than wire used in hay balers.

[Daryl]

I don't think using that wire in large quantities would be very useful.
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From the stuff that I have worked with, I have found it to be much softer than wrought iron of the same size, not fibrous at all, and readily corrodes. Not having any of the qualities of wrought iron and having the faults of steel, as well as seeing what it welds like both in the fire and with oxy-acet, I would guess it to be a mild steel with high phosphor and or sulphur content. This would make it malleable yet undesirable for much else other than twisting together for re-bar.

[eander4]

HW,

I seem to recall from a discussion sometime back that baling wire is 1008. I don't remember the entire gist of the conversation, but I do remember someone commenting that it was really easy to forge weld the stuff. Bear in mind, this information is seeping from the depths of my increasingly feeble brain, so may not be entirely accurate.

Eric

[Strine]

You blokes are amazing with your metallurgic know how. All those numbers and codes seem to just spill out like a recipe for scones. If a piece of hot metal comes out of my fire and it's hard to forge I say to myself. "self, that bit of stuff, what ever it is, is hard to forge" end of discussion.

Oh, and scones... 3/4 cups of milk, cream, selfraisng flour and a pinch of salt (I didn't want to be left off the knowledge tree). :)