October 4, 200718 yr mild steel barstock or bladestock? Mild steel can be found at Home Depot or Lowes.
October 4, 200718 yr try gonig to yourlocal home-depot and talkngi to the manager about buying an old used jackhammer bit. it's a good steel and about a 1.5" octagon. Son
October 4, 200718 yr Hmmm. These prices look higher than what I remember for Speedy Metals. Especially the prices on tool steel. I recall that you could get better prices on Ebay (from Speedy Metals).
October 4, 200718 yr Author I'll prolly save up money for a year or two, then once I can make hammer's out of wrought iron, i buy the tool. For the mean time, I'll prolly by 6' long 5/8" 1" and 2" of wrought iron, about 40 bucks.
October 4, 200718 yr There is a link; down at the bottom; to take you to their ebay auctions. there are something like 27 pages on sale. its a bit quicker to look and see if they have what you want then just purchase what you need.
October 4, 200718 yr Author I'm buying the wrought Iron at speedymetals.com it's really cheap. for a lot of iron. I checked their ebay page, they don't have any iron for sale.
October 4, 200718 yr I'm buying the wrought Iron at speedymetals.com it's really cheap. for a lot of iron. I checked their ebay page, they don't have any iron for sale. I just looked and didn't see any wrought iron, turned up no results on a search as well. You might want to double check before you order John. If they do have wrought on the page you pull up, please post THAT URL, I'd like to find a supplier of small quantities of wrought. Axles make fine hammers, it's a very forgiving steel so you don't have to get your heat treatment perfect. Frosty
October 4, 200718 yr That is not wrought iron that is cast iron!! it is no good for hammers. Forgot to add my choices for hammer steel are 4140, S7, L6 and H13 there are lots of steels that can be used another steel common would be 1040 don't waste your time with cast iron.
October 4, 200718 yr I was getting all excited about wrought iron for a minute there. I've worked with it in a very limited context (made an s-hook, which turned out pretty well, and two chain links, one of which seems to have walked off on its own), and it is some neat stuff, though harder to work with than 1018 by a long shot. I take it that modern cast iron ain't very different from the old stuff? I've always been tempted to try forging some just to see how it behaves (poorly).
October 4, 200718 yr Author What's big difference between wrought and cast? I thought that they were both made the same way?
October 4, 200718 yr Author Oh. Metals Depot is also another good site, and it is way cheaper. Which is better? Cold Finished or Hot rolled?
October 4, 200718 yr I spent the afternoon at a scrap yard. got about 75# at .40/# got 2 coil springs some 8' of 6x6 steel tube couple of nice steel plates bout an 1/8 x8x10, great for clamping. spent 31 bux. need some 3/th plate they had plenty of it but cutting would have been expensive...tomorrow there is one that is set up to cut.... there is more stuff layin around .... FP
October 4, 200718 yr Cast iron crumbles like cottage cheese at low forging heats and *splashes* at high forging heats. Real Wrought Iron will "fray" into fibers at low forging heats and at high forging heats you can tie knots in it, forge welds almost disappear, etc. "The Real Wrought Iron Co, LTD" sells remanufacutured WI; but almost all you can find is out of the scrap stream as the last factory that was commercially producing it closed down in the 70's and was donated to the Blist Hill Museum in England The stuff that stores sell as "wrought iron" nowdays is all made from mild steel and not Wrought Iron---just like bed and bath "linens" are all made from cotton nowdays; they *used* to be made of linen and the name stuck. But if you are doing high grade historical work you need to use the same material they used. Wrought iron was *the* blacksmith's material from the begining of the iron age up until the latter half of the 19th century when the Bessemer converter started making cheap mild steel.
October 4, 200718 yr 1045 is a good choice for hammers and other blacksmithing tools. I see that you are in Wisconsin. I am in southeast MN about 40 miles west of LaCrosse. I have some old jackhammer points that are 1045. If you are interested and aren't too far let me know. Bob
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