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I Forge Iron

Sand used as a flux?


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Prohibitively tedious for a wrought iron mimic? Just right isn't really a goal, good enough to have a similar finish or maybe easy weld characteristics. Genuine wrought iron isn't real common around here. 

Frosty The Lucky.

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Generally when welding billets you are trying to get all scale, flux, etc to be expressed from the weld zone not trapped in.  Trapped in inclusions are considered a welding flaw and while real wrought iron *may* have a couple of percentage points of ferrous silicates in it the better grades have lower amounts and are finely disseminated.  The Byers' book on Wrought Iron mentions that there may be over 100000 spicules per sq inch, kind of hard to manage in a billet weld.

Wrought iron is not that hard to source; there are several commercial sources, (Globe, Real Wrought Iron Co LTD, etc) and it still shows up in the scrap stream in various qualities. (I've run across it on 4 continents so far.)

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Agreed, inclusions are a welding flaw, no argument there. I wasn't really thinking about weld quality or structural steel so much as finished textures, say for knife furniture or perhaps decorative products. 

A piece of wrought from the Globe when shipped to Alaska costs more than high end knife or tool steel. It's been years since I had access to the scrap stream, it's all single buyer now and wrought iron wasn't that common here. A large part of Alaskan history is after Bessemer.  It's around but what is is largely a state historical site with some pretty severe penalties for packing it off. You almost have to be on private property to pick up litter things are getting so stupid here.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

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