When did industry stopped manufacturing blacksmith tools with wrought iron?

[caotropheus]

That is the question that I have been looking for an answer for some time but I haven't found a satisfying answer. Modern process of steels production appeared by the second half of the XIX century. So, my question is until what decade of the XIX/XX century were blacksmith tools like anvils and vices manufactured with wrought iron?

Thanks

[George N. M.]

I would sahy that it was a gradual process and both types were manufactured at the same time.  More expensive versions of X would be made of steel while less expensive versions of the same object would be made from wrought iron.  If you want a date for when more of X were made from steel rather than wrought iron in the US I would say about 1900-1910.  I have no adademic authority for that, only a general sense.

"by hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Julianb]

Hi!

That is not an easily answered question and it definitely differs between the manufactureres and time frames. I might be able to offer some insights concerning German anvil makers and will concentrate on the time period from around 1850 to 1920, as I have an actual basis of sources for it. The chosen period is quite long and there have been different methods of steelmaking utilized during those years. As my english vocabulary is not up to standard on the scientific terms for each of those methods, I'll ignore those for now, but it is important to know, that there are different methods of production, that lead to the product we now generalized call wrought iron (the same goes for steel). In addition to that, the definiton of iron and steel was not exactly the same as ours today.

To get specific now:

The very widely known anvil maker Söding & Halbach used iron and steel from at least two different production methods during the years of 1850-1870 alone. They refined crude iron and english cast iron and from the 1870s onward worked closely with a local steelworks and utilized crucible steel, made with different methods.

In comparison to that, the not so widely known maker Hermann Kuhler from Remscheid is said to have shut down its last own puddle iron production in the 1930s. At that time the method of puddling was long out of date.

I know it is just one example and anvils with their way of manufacturing are rather special, but maybe it helps a little.

Cheers!
Julian

[patrick]

Steel faced wrought iron tools were the norm until large scale steel production made steel cheap enough to use for the entire tool. This did not happen until Bessemer steel making (initially 1856 but it really took off a few years later) followed shortly thereafter by the Open Hearth steel making process. The high carbon steels made by the blister/shear and crucible process persisted in industry until the early 1900s because crucible steel making was capable of delivering a higher quality product than the other two method and because high carbon steels (which was what crucible methods were used to make) was not used in such high volumes as the non-tooling grades. When electric arc steel making was introduced in 1906 (US) that began to take the place of the crucible process.

From an anvil making perspective we see Hay Budden switching from wrought iron with a steel face to full steel anvils in the early 1900s (I think around 1910 but I'd have to verify that). If I recall correctly , Trenton never made that switch and continued to make anvils into the middle part of the 1900s. You definitely start to see descriptions of the type of steel to use for hand tools in the old blacksmithing reference books in the early 1900s, but when companies like Heller or Champion started using all steel tools, I don't know. I don't know if they ever made wrought iron/steel composite tools. I do have a couple of hammers that were made that way, but there are no makers marks. 

Where you find this method of construction most prominently is actually in wood working tools such as axes, planes and chisels. Once steel became cheap enough to use for the entire tool, those tool makes made the same kind of switch that the other tool makers did. Interestingly, composite tool construction is still common in high end wood working tools made in Japan and by some other custom tool producers.