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

[jlpservicesinc]

Frazer. That is really excellent.. in my area the narrow gauge tracks were phased out early so have never seen a steel 1..  You might want to cut 1 and acid etch them to see if they are carbonized wrought iron on the small ones.. 

I've found carbonized wrought iron is amazing for it's self sharpening and edge holding. Well of course depending on lotta factors but prefer it for wood working tools. 

[Frazer]

Hm.. That's a good idea. I'll cut and etch one of each and share what I find later this afternoon/evening.

[jlpservicesinc]

Thanks. That would be great. Especially it its carbonized wrought.  

[Frazer]

Even if it's not it might be interesting for people who haven't seen the WI grain to observe it after an etch.

I'll see about borrowing a decent camera.

[Frazer]

I had my brother stop by with his fancy phone to take some snazzy pictures for you all.

Samples were ground and hand sanded to 800 grit prior to a deep etch in ferric chloride.

Here is the WI spike (a very nice specimen IMHO; reasonably coarse grain and a mushroom cloud shaped pattern in the cross section):

While it isn't nearly as exciting to look at, here is the steel spike:

One thing that was interesting about the steel spike is that there were what I am going to describe as "tubular inclusions/voids" running down the length of the spike. After sectioning and sanding you could see them as dark spots in the cross section (nearly impossible to see in the pictures after the etch). I ground down to some of the most superficial inclusions and after sanding and etching they appeared as the streaks you see in the side view. Those are actually inclusions and in some cases voids within the material. I am left with the conclusion that the steel spikes are indeed steel. However they are of poor quality relative to modern steel we are used to today. (Note: for their purpose at the time they were probably more than adequate).

[George N. M.]

Interesting.  I suspect that the mushroom pattern is an artifact of manufacture but I have no idea of how it would happen.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[jlpservicesinc]

Frazer very nice.. Thanks..   It's very interesting to me that the narrow gauge tracks were in use as long as they were.. I wonder if it was a mine or private line or trolley system? 

Here they phased out the narrow gauge stuff pretty quickly.. 

It's interesting that many of the local towns had trolleys even with smaller populations. Many of which were narrow gauge. 

You were lucky to find such interesting iron

[jlpservicesinc]

Frazer if you don't mind do a hardness test and see if the etch comes out different on the steel 1.. 

[Frazer]

Sure, I can do that.

[jlpservicesinc]

Im curious if the spikes have enough carbon to harden at all. 

And if the anawer is yes, to what depth.

The acid etch after hardening will show this some. 

[Daswulf]

Dug this up recently. I had used electrolysis to clean it up from the crusty found condition from one of my Youghiogheny river kayak trips. Just gave it a dip in my home made ferric chloride, neutralized and wire wheeled. Square nut is clearly solid wrought iron while the bolt section has strands on the inner parts but looks like corroded steel on the outside. Also two rr spikes that went through the same process. I suspect the rr spikes to be more modern steel but well corroded.

 

Got a few more old finds I just dunked in the ferric chloride that I will pull out and clean tomorrow if all goes well. 

 

Tried to get rid of that last large photo but it won't, so sorry about that. 

[jlpservicesinc]

Very cool..  

Thanks for sharing.. 

 

[Daswulf]

Thanks. I find it very cool too. 

Here is a second batch. The middle one I'm not sure on. The outer two have some of the wrought iron tell signs. 

To go along with those other rotted rr spikes, a newish one and less rusted one. Neat lineup. 

Just for fun. 

Just to note, the ones that got electrolysis bath were so crusty that I didnt know what they were. Once I broke the crust off it started getting more obvious. My friend found a spike that was crusted really bad our last kayak trip and once he broke the crust off it was about as clean as these. It was amazing. 

[Frosty]

Next time don't clean the crust off  before you do the electrolysis. 

You'll be amazed how much rust converts back to the iron in it's original position. I found a piece of rust that looked like a book, I knew it was a hammer because of the completely rust flake filled eye. Overnight in the electrolysis bath and it turned out to be a 12oz.  Atha set hammer right down to the grind marks on the face. The only blemish was the piece of rust I chipped out with my fingernail when I found it. 

Electrolysis is used to convert large rock and shell filled black lumps back into silver coins, jewelry, vases, etc. found in ship wrecks. 

Give it a try, it's WICKED COOL BEANS!

Frosty The Lucky.