[TheForge] Tool Steel--This should be OT I think

[Peter Fels And Phoebe Palmer]

In 20 or 30 years whoever specified steel, instead of enduring 
wrought, will be comfortably retired and elsewhere.
Tax payers, on the other hand, can only remember 20 or 30 minutes.
Re the earlier discussion;
The alloy and carbon content of wrought used in old construction 
, farm and ship work seems to be highly variable. I have some 
that has layers that will round the teeth on a hacksaw blade in 3 
strokes . Other examples are almost buttery. Some is definitely 
chunky, some is all bristling fibers.
If nothing else, the available ore bodys had real different 
contents.

Andrew Vida wrote:
> 
> 
> Smoky wrote:
>> I am not really sure that Wrought Iron would be commercially viable 
>> nowadays.  Most of the fab shops wouldn't know how to work with it and 
>> would drill holes where they shouldn't leaving it weak.
> 
>     That is an academic issue.  Provide the right information and people 
> will learn to work with it.
> 
>  >  Not
>> understanding the concept of the grain in something like metal, they 
>> could make a lot of something worthless.  Just some thoughts off the 
>> top of my head.
> 
>     Good points, but new materials are introduced routinely and with 
> them comes something a trial period where manufacturers climb the 
> learning curve.  I can see problems here and there, but if the 
> manufacturer does a righteous job of educating the customer, I would 
> think these would be minimal.  Of course there is the liability angle, 
> and that is such a wildcard I don't suppose anything could be taken for 
> granted there.
> 
>     These valid points aside, given wrought iron's properties of 
> toughness and corrosion resistance, is there a market for such a 
> material where the cost of stainless cannot be justified but 
> environmental longevity is desired?  Just think of steel bulkheads.  20 
> or 30 years and they are shot.  Wrought iron is often good for 100 or more.
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