fe-si electrical steel

[worsethanrust]

Hello, I have been dismantling some old electrical transformers from a motorhome. I found out that the "steel" (thin sheets of metal stacked together in and around the wound copper) is actually iron silicone. is there any way to forge such metal to make useful tools or items?  It lists on wikipedia as very low carbon. Thank you for your answers.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I seriously doubt it would be worth the effort, but try and laminate it with some other steels and let us know the outcome.

[Frosty]

It might make a sort of modern wrought iron leaving silica inclusions in the billet. If you have a hot enough forge it wouldn't hurt to experiment in a smallish stack say 3/4" x 1" x 4" should be manageable. 

I don't think it'll bake particularly useful tools but it might make some nicely textured finished stock like wrought iron does. Slipping some nickel sheet in here and there might make some strong high contrast patterns.

Then again the amount of and type silica may defeat attempts to forge weld it.

I'll be interested if you give it a try or whatever you do with it. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

NO; transformer lams are a Si-Fe alloy. There is no "free" silica in it and so it is NOT a wrought iron surrogate!

They are very low carbon and so may be interesting to try to use for repousse.  Most tools are medium to high carbon so not useful for tools If thick enough they may make good vise jaw cover material!

If you want to use it in pattern welding billets you need to either have a use that doesn't need to be hardened; or juice up the billet with higher carbon alloys,  (I'd try a lam, bandsaw blade and 1.2%c Black Diamond file for instance, hmmm I have all that on hand; I'll have to put that on the "let's try it" list.)

If the lams are thick enough they may make a good material for chiseled and pierced designs for ornamental work.

 

[Frosty]

I was speculating and suggested an experiment to see if some of the silica might come out of solution at the near molten welding temperatures required for nearly zero carbon iron. 

I took a transformer apart years ago to see if the iron was useable and the sheets were extremely thin, I could literally poke a finger through them and couldn't separate them intact.

Frosty The Lucky.

[worsethanrust]

Thank you all for the information. I had never heard of this material before a week ago. Im going to try to make a blank using this material layered with some cut nails used in concrete. The old flat style cut nails. No idea if it will forge weld or not and no ideas yet as to what I'll actually make with it. Just a good reason to play on the forge and learn a little bit even if the lesson is "this material sucks"  thank you all!