Subject: [TheForge] Pure Iron

[Thomas A. Troszak]

> My question is this, if this material was so great and the time
> saved forging made up for the extra cost, why did we let the people selling
> it go belly up?? 
> John C.

Dear John:

Three reasons:
Shipping, shipping, and shipping.  It's not the cost of the iron that hurts
so much, it's the thought of paying more than the material cost to have it
cut and packaged and shipped. Or having to cross three states to pick some
up, or having to wait until the next conference... etc. If my steel
distributor stocked it, I would buy some for special jobs, as long as it
came next day with my regular order...

The paradox: The hobby smith who has time to burn making delicate leaves,
etc. by hand from "pure iron" usually can't even afford unknown scrap from
the junkyard, and is often seen picking up metal from the side of the road.

The folks who are making a living from ironwork have already figured out how
to crank out whatever they need out of A-36 or whatever is available, and
will probably not have any reason to spend extra on some slightly softer
material, unless it has some other property that is unobtainable from
regular HR bar... and as long as it comes on the steel truck with the rest
of the stuff.

The folks who have the extra time (to acquire the "pure iron") and extra
money to pay for it, and the extra time to do beautiful work with it are
unfortunately the minority...

Tom