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I Forge Iron

Show us your forged wrought iron items (Old and new).


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I think it's time that forged wrought iron has its own sample/example page.  

Seeing old wrought iron and how it was forged can leave a lasting impression. .

Here I have a ring off a wagon wheel hub (inside) which I pulled off a wagon axle while swimming in about 4ft of water.  I can only imagine how the axle got there maybe some drunkin guys lost their wagon at the hill and it ended up in the river. 

It's far enough away from a (trail/road) that it really made me wonder.   The neat thing is I've probably gone over it 300 times in the last 45 years. 

 

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Hello, firstly I apologise for making this my first post. I've been trying to identify this item for a,most a week now and all the facebook groups I'm in have had guesses but couldn't give me a definitive identification. So i thought I would try the experts! Guesses so far are shutter peg, a tine guard for some kind of machinery, oh and some kind of ground peg for marking areas with string... 

Thanks for taking a look.

  

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Arkie, Sadly these items are still attached the 1"X 8" wrought iron bar bolted to the face of the dam..  I won't be back there for another month.. Its 40minutes away. 

Next time I am there I will take some better photos.   I have wanted to remove the item and bring it back to the shop but moving it will be tough as it's right in the center of town and it weighs more than I can move easily. 

Old Crew, that is funny isn't it.. I'm meeting with my crew of marital arts people tomorrow after work,  and might try to grab the whole axle then and try to recover the wheel irons if I can locate them.. 

While I was there I found a RR cart buried on the bottom as well ( not sure if it is a pump cart or pull cart).. I might try to salvage this as well, but this will take a few float bags and a winch on the shoreline to drag it up the 200ft from the water.  the RR cart is about 500ft from the closest parking area so will decide if I can recruit help for the retrieval. 

I need as many excuses as I can find these days..  Between regular work and shop build (thank you for the help), it leave little time for anything else. 

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Thomas, about 40% of the wrought iron I have presently came from underwater finds. 

I have lead on 2  bridges that were truss rod bridges that got knocked off the stone pads,  swamped in an extreme flood.. I don't know if they were ever recovered. 

If they were not. It will mean some serious iron find.  many of the bars are 2" plus

I'll know more when time permits. 

These lovely's were sent to me by a talented smith. He sent me one and I could not bring myself to cut into it so he sent me a second so I could.  This is a wall hanger for sure. 

This chain came from an Essex class ship from what I was told.  2.125 diameter..  It shows sign of wear so it was in use as some point. 

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It's hard to say with such a rusty item. 

I've seen such items used for old flooring when installing as a wedge of sorts.. But with this said, it is hard with all the rust. 

I can see a semi finished curl for the finial and somewhat of a smallish handle 

I don't think I have a photo of the one I had seen before. Very similar but don't think it was exact. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Chelonian,  I don't know..  Many times I just leave them hanging around because of the coolness factor and the fact that many have never seen an item like this that was forged from pieces. 

There is a lot of information presented as to technique and process to making this kind of piece.. Much of what is considered "Normal forging practice" would have been frowned on in the past. 

this was forged as 4 separate pieces then welded in the middle.  Most would assume the collars that acted as bearings for the thimbles would have been forged integrated. 

This shows they were clearly welded on before they were welded in the middle.   the nice thing about this kind construction is it's can be adjustable/or adjusted for different. 

I have amassed quite the pile over the last summer months while out walking.  I found a bunch of wrought iron wire that looks like fencing wire or the like.  3/16" round. 

2 wagon axles.. 1 front, 1 rear (the front has some wrought iron sections and steel sections).  Assorted bits and bobs.  

 

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The old telegraph wire was WI in certain times and places.  As were the stay bars from old wooden train cars. "Old" is often a lead in to wrought iron---but it has to be for blacksmiths values of old!  (Most stuff pre Bessemer/Kelly---1850's; is WI or cast iron. A mix in the last half of the 19th century and a fairly sharp taper in the 1900's. In the 1930's you often only see NOS WI in things or reworked scrap for repairs.

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The wire I found quite possibly could be telegraph wire.    there was a train station at the bottom of the hill with houses littered up the road..  The houses were taken out in 1920's for the water shed as were the poles.  there are a few anchor points for the poles as well as old foundations..  I haven't dug into the area more but have found all the wire. 

The place was a mecca for bottle collectors so much of the area is picked over for glassware, but no one cared about iron/steel.  More to be had for sure. ""

 

Here is the front axle which is steel, but much of the fittings for the trunnion/5th wheel are wrought iron,  all the wire with wrought iron RR spikes also found in the river (river was super low from drought) 

This years haul so far.  I've got a few more pieces found this year but not in the pile. 

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  • 11 months later...

Thanks Arkie ,

Yes it is possible and because its wrought iron aka the blacksmiths material it just gets better each welding cycle.

 

You are correct that the losses can be substantial so it depends on what the intended purpose will be for it.

Knife, gun barrel, wagon hardware   hinges etc, etc.   

They have been laying up bar stock of wrought iron and fore welding them together to get larger sizes since it all started.

When wrought iron was the main product the use of die rollers took over as a faster process vs forging or hammering.

1 heat could go from 4" round to 3/4"..

Someone i know just bought a rolling mill. Will handle 1" stock.   1x4" 

 

 

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