wrought iron question

[Pault17]

All,
I searched the forum with no luck in finding what I was looking for.
The same place where I dug up my first anvil and leg vice, my father in law gave me the remains of an old manure spreader wagon, along with any metal dug out of the side of one of the hills on his property. Among other things, I have two rims about 3 to 3.5 feet or so in diameter, 1/2 inch thick and three or so inches wide, with rounded edges. I cut out and brought a ten inch piece to the blacksmith shop at the fair and all of the "old" smiths said that it looked like wrought. I gave it to one to check out, as my forge is no way big enough to heat the piece up. Is there some way I can test to see if it is wrought. cutting and bending to break?

thanks for the words

[RainsFire]

nicking and bending to break works.. I think you can also cut it, polish and check out the grain structure.

[sstreckfuss]

I have personally never seen it but this might help you.

Quoted from "The Art Of Blacksmithing"

"It was soft, yet tough. For instance, it could be bent double without breaking. Indeed, many farriers in the old days tested horeshoe nails by bending them across the forehead to determine softness."

"As with wood, pure iron had a sort of grain, a fibrous quality due to silica content, which influenced the method by which it was worked. These fibers became quite apparent when examining old pieces of wrought iron that had been exposed to the elements, or buried in some ancient warriors grave. These fibers may also be seen at the end of an iron rod which has been worked at too low a heat for the force of the hammerblows seperate them until the iron resembles the frayed end of a wooled tread. Making too sharp a bend , even when hot, weakens the fibers, so that old pieces have rounded corners where bent, and old anvils had a section of a corner rounded for forming bends."

There is more regarding it from the book but my fingers are tired. :D

[HWooldridge]

If spark tested on a grinding wheel, you'll see very few sparks and they will be orange. Take a small piece and work the tip dead cold - mild steel may crack but WI will unravel.

[bruce wilcock]

wrought iron drills leaving short chips ,

[Robert Mayo]

Check out this link it will tell you all you need.
yen and yang of wrought iron - Bladesmith's Forum Board

[irnsrgn]

Wrought Iron is basically no carbon content in its makeup.

Generally speaking, Wagon Tire Iron was unrefined Wrought Iron, and has a coarser grain structure than good Wrought Iron. In other words it was the poorest quality of Wrought available. Lightly working Wagon Tire Iron under a power hammer or with a hand hammer along its length will have a tendency to destroy the grain as some say, which actually means that it is being further refined and it will work much better and be stronger because of this procedure.

jWagon Tire Wrought is easy to detect, when hot it moves like clay under the hammer, when attempting to bend it cold it breaks easy and looks like a board that has been broken (not a clean break), if the first heat is a bright yellow or white it will explode (disintigrate into many small pieces) when first hit, worked to cold it will crack and seperate similar to rope fibers.

As to Wrought having a grain like wood, all rolled structural shapes have a wood like graing to them as they are basically extruded thru rolling dies from large billets. Iron and steel are similar to glass too in the way they will break. see http://www.iforgeiron.com/blueprints-000-100/bp0056-iron.html

The reason Wrought Iron forge welds so well is; 1. It has almost no carbon content. 2. The Fiberous Grain of the material has silica inclusions remaining that were used when puddling (refining) it to remove the high carbon content of the pig iron (cast ingot) as it came from the smelting process.

[ThomasPowers]

From "Formulas for Profit", Bennett, copyright 1939, 4th printing

"To identify iron from steel"
"Mix 5 drops nitric acid with 10 drops H2O", (remember acid into water *NEVER* water into acid),"File a clean spot and place a drop on it.

If it is steel it will turn black immediatly. If it is wrought iron or malleable iron it will stay bright for a considerable length of time."

Use at your own risk!


Also the wood grain look of wrought iron is very different than the wood grain look of rolled steel. The wrought iron can actually look like the grain on a board when rusty or worn due to the ferrous silicate spicules, they also give it the "green stick" fracture when notching and breaking a sample cold. On rolled steel the pattern is due to prefferential crystal allignment so it's at a whole nother size level---more micro than macro.

And finally to clear up that last point: the silicates were not used to help lower the carbon content. Puddling is what lowered the carbon content, the silicates were used to make the resultant material into the wrought iron that the smiths expected.

May I commend to your attention, "WROUGHT IRON: Its Manufacture, Characteristics and Applications" Aston, James and Edward Story abebooks.com shows 11 copies under US$5

Thomas