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

[Jerry Frost]

This leads me to delve back into the recollections that 
I was mistaken about regarding when wrought was last 
produced in the US. (lousy sentence but understandable 
I hope)

>From what I recall reading; after the bessemer process 
became wide spread, production of wrought fell off 
sharply and mild steel became more and more the norm 
for construction and other things wrought was used for. 
Still, there was a large market for wrought iron and 
for a period bessemer processed pure iron was sold as 
wrought, later specific amounts of silica was added to 
make "bessemer wrought." (I'm using a descriptive 
phrase here, that's almost certainly not what it was 
actually called)

Again, my memory is probably not clear so I'm sure 
details are wrong. I've looked through my bookmarks and 
read myself cross-eyed but can't find the link I 
probably lost it in the last crash.

Anyway, I strongly doubt fresh wrought is being 
produced the way they did it 150 years ago. The ore or 
scrap is probably refined and purified via the Bessemer 
process and silica added back in to make up "wrought". 
It's them refined under rolls rather than hammers.

Pure iron is probably taken out of the process before 
alloying agents are added and actually requires less 
labor, materials and fuel to produce. But as all small 
batch products costs more.

I'll go sit quietly now.

Frosty
-------------------------------
If it ain't forged
it ain't real.
Wrought iron is.
The FrostWorks

Meadow Lakes, AK.


From: "Andrew Vida" <osan at netlabs.net>

> The front page is interesting in that mewonders if 
> they have confused pure iron with wrought.  To wit, 
> it states:
>
> "Pure Iron is a high-purity iron that is very ductile 
> and the preferred material for forging and decorative 
> metal work. While very popular in the first half of 
> the 20th century, its use was reduced by the 
> development of new steel alloys and high production 
> costs."
>
> I do not recall pure iron being popular in the era up 
> to 1950, but perhaps I am mistaken.  Also, referring 
> to it as "ductile" rather than malleable leads me to 
> suspect.  Wrought iron is ductile (uni-axial 
> deformable) whereas pure iron is malleable 
> (multi-axially deformable).
>
> Just an observation.
>
> -Andy
>