Very Strange/Unique Wrought Iron with... copper???

[liamh]

Hello all,

I forged a wrought iron/1090 damascus blade a couple days ago, and etched it.

When I pulled it out of the acid there were pink or copper colored spots all over it. It looks like someone mixed mokume with damascus. Anyways, the wrought iron I used is on the lower end of the quality scale. My BEST guess after thinking about it for a bit, is that there are copper impurities in this wrought iron. So the next day I forge a hatchet out of the same stuff, and there is a copper color in it as well. BTW the wrought iron came from an old wagon wheel, and I was using a coal forge. Anyone out there with much experience in wrought iron? IS this color from copper mixed in the wrought?  I'm not complaining, it looks beautiful whatever it is.

Look at pictures of this blade.

[Francis Trez Cole]

that looks very cool

[Frosty]

Where did you find the wagon tire? If it were laying wet where copper is preent, the more noble metal copper will replace the iron a molecule at a time. Given enough time you may end up with enough copper deposited in the interstices between silicates in the wrought to make for interesting patterns in forgings.

 

Of course that's just my guess I'm probably wrong. <grin>

 

Frosty the Lucky.

[thingmaker3]

What is your etchant? FeCl with copper in it will deposit copper on ferrous metals.

[liamh]

I use FeCl.. and come to think of it i DO etch copper mokume gane rings in it! Do you really think that's what it could be from? I assume it only appears in the wrought iron because it is softer, thus allowing it to be deposited. Interesting theory.

[Frosty]

Ayup, that's it. It's not which one is softer, it's which is the less noble. The more noble metal doesn't stay in solution as well so it replaces less noble metals. Basically the solution disolves the iron and the copper comes out of solution and replaces it.

 

I'm sure that's not exactly what's happening but it's what I recall from years ago.

 

Frosty the Lucky.

[Chinobi]

should be independent of the softness of the wrought, its a watered down form of electroplating i believe.  if you sand the surface it should remove the copper coloration.

 

edit:

thanks frosty, my chem is backwards then, thinking more along the lines of what happens when you pick up silver items from the pickle pot with steel tweezers instead of the copper tongs :)

[liamh]

Thanks for these fast intelligent responses.

[liamh]

should be independent of the softness of the wrought, its a watered down form of electroplating i believe.  if you sand the surface it should remove the copper coloration.

 

edit:

thanks frosty, my chem is backwards then, thinking more along the lines of what happens when you pick up silver items from the pickle pot with steel tweezers instead of the copper tongs :)

I always sand blades with 1200 grit after etching, apparently it was not abrasive enough to remove the plating (luckily).

[windancer]

There is a well-known smith in Argentina [i think!] that routinely makes Damascus with copper and/or brass.  That is way beyond anything I do so remembered it couod be done and went on my way. Pretty interesting to me.

Dave

[windancer]

The fella I was talking about is a knifemaker, and he is from Argentina. He makes TONS of stuff- great site!

http://www.aescustomknives.com/