[TheForge] Re: File Making, sniffing up wrought iron

[GRAF]

Paul, are you in Milwaukee.

Mike Graf 53208

paul wrote:
> Jerry Frost wrote:
>> snip
>> There's undoubtably a big difference between wrought from the WWI era 
>> and WWII. By time WWII came around wrought was being replaced by mild 
>> steel and what wrought was still being produced was machine made on a 
>> fairly large scale. When you're making "wrought" by adding silica to 
>> Bessemer converted "pure iron" and running it through rolling mills 
>> at a high rate of speed you're going to end up with a different product.
>>> From what I've read about this kind of wrought it was 
>> much more uniform and refined from the start. Advertisements for it 
>> made a big deal out of it's higher degree of refinement at lower cost.
>>
>> I know there was wrought being made this way before WWI too but by 
>> WWII it was about the only way it was being made. I don't think much 
>> if any wrought was made after WWII.
> snip
>> Frosty
>> -------------------------------
>> If it ain't forged
>> it ain't real.
>> Wrought iron is.
>> The FrostWorks
> The A.M.Byers Company, Pittsburgh, PA, manufactured wrought iron until 
> 1969.
> see:
> http://www.bchistory.org/beavercounty/BeaverCountyTopical/Industry/AMByersCo/AMByersMSP84.html 
>
>
> I have installed what was in the 'trades' referred to as Byers pipe as 
> late as 1969 or 1970. Byers pipe was available both as galvanized and 
> plain steel. It was touted as being highly corrosion resistant, and 
> was used in the construction  of the Milwaukee County Stadium, 
> completed in time for the 1953 season, which was the home of the 
> Milwaukee Braves at the time. It was easy to recognize, as it was 
> marked with a spiral stripe over it's entire length. It may have been 
> corrosion resistant, but it was not a favored material. The wrought 
> iron pipe was but welded out of flat stock as is much pipe today. The 
> fibers of the wrought iron ran lengthwise and made the threading of 
> the pipe a nightmare. Lots of torn threads... it was also a p.i.t.a. 
> to stick weld.
> From the description on page s 28 to 35 of 'Wrought Iron, Its 
> Manufacture Characteristics and Applications' published by the A.M. 
> Byers Company 11th printing 1957, it seems that even though the 
> process indeed started with Bessemer converted iron, when the molten 
> refined iron was added to the ladle of molten flux, which was held a 
> temperature below that of the molten iron, it caused the stream of 
> iron to chill and settle to the bottom of the molten slag and form a 
> sponge there that was very like the more traditional sponge  from the 
> earlier process of making wrought iron. Wish I had some of old piping 
> from the stadium that was demolished: February 21, 2001. Check your 
> local junk yards for black iron pipe with a red stripe. 20' of 8" pipe 
> would yield a hell of a piece of flat stock once it was slit and 
> opened up. Thickness will depend on age and condition but for 8" would 
> be about 1/4".