Bad wrought iron?

Gahagan

Gahagan

Well-Known Member
Ok so I think I got some bad wrought iron. I was making a guard and shaped it to rough shape I threw it in the forge to finish up the shaping of the guard. I put it in for about 10 min and when I returned it was a blob of metal in my forge. This stuff had melted. I have used this bar before on other guards but never forged them to shape. It ground well and etched fine and looked like wrought when done. So the melting tempertaure for wwrought is what 2700 degrees? I have never had wrought melt down on me what could this be?
 
No idea but I'm interested to hear some ideas. Got any pictures?
 
I have experienced different qualities of wrought iron. Some is very unrefined, and I have some that is very clean. There is a good chance you have some with a lot of silica in it. If that is the case, I think you would need to forge weld it to itself and work out some of the impurities to clean it up. Another thought is, did you have your forge too hot? Just some thought, and I could be all wrong.
 
I've been wondering myself if Wrought Iron can be "refined" by forging it out and maybe folding it a few times, would that make it easier to forge? And maybe help keep it from getting "stringy"? For the lack of a better description, that it what happened to me one time, I heated a piece of ship chain up to cherry red let it soak for about 5 or 10 minutes before I started flattening it out and it immediately started coming apart, literally seperating into stringy pieces, so I stopped, stumped! I didn't proceed further, I put it aside and decided it would be best to wait until I learned enought be able to forge it correctly. I am hoping that the answer to this problem is not chunk it! I've held on to it this long, I hope it's useable WI and not the kind that is un-useable!
Thanks guys, Rex
 
Jim Moenck said:
I have experienced different qualities of wrought iron. Some is very unrefined, and I have some that is very clean. There is a good chance you have some with a lot of silica in it. If that is the case, I think you would need to forge weld it to itself and work out some of the impurities to clean it up. Another thought is, did you have your forge too hot? Just some thought, and I could be all wrong.
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Jim,
How can you tell if WI contains silica in it?
Thanks, Rex
 
From what I know, wrought iron has a wide range of quality. Some is very refined, and hard to distinguish from mild steel until it has been etched. Lesser refined material is just that, meaning there are a lot of impurities in it. That is what gives it the "look" we want. Yes, you can refine it by forge welding it to itself several time to work out the impurities. I have some experience, but not much, with forging wrought. Good wrought works like butter, and correct temperature is important.
 
I think it was the act that it had the silica in it. It had gaps everywhere like something melted out of it and then it just fell in on itself. the was a big puddle at the base.
 
Silica is sometimes used as flux when forge welding. At the iron smelts I've been at, silica sand is added to the charcoal and ore in the process to keep the ore for oxidizing. It then migrates to the bottom and runs off as molten glass. I expect it could leave voids in the wrought, and the spaces between the fibers as you describe. Like I said, the temperature you work it at is important. Too much and you have a puddle, to little and it breaks apart. The term "red short" is involved here but I can't tell you what that term means. I'll talk to some of the guys from our Guild and get some info for you.
 
McClellan Made Blades said:
I've been wondering myself if Wrought Iron can be "refined" by forging it out and maybe folding it a few times, would that make it easier to forge? And maybe help keep it from getting "stringy"? For the lack of a better description, that it what happened to me one time, I heated a piece of ship chain up to cherry red let it soak for about 5 or 10 minutes before I started flattening it out and it immediately started coming apart, literally seperating into stringy pieces, so I stopped, stumped! I didn't proceed further, I put it aside and decided it would be best to wait until I learned enought be able to forge it correctly. I am hoping that the answer to this problem is not chunk it! I've held on to it this long, I hope it's useable WI and not the kind that is un-useable!
Thanks guys, Rex
Click to expand...

Rex,
Cherry red is not hot enough for wrought iron. Take it up to bright yellow, and give it another go.
Bob
 
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In general....the lower the carbon content, the higher forging and/or welding heat is required. Wrought Iron is a very generalized term to describe a very non-specific product.

My suspicion from the material description, and how it reacted is that it was "1st generation" melt wrought. Meaning that it's basically one step removed from pig iron. Wrought iron comes in any number of varieties, and along with each variety, the working characteristics change. I've learned over the years to always "test forge" a piece of any given "wrought" before I attempt to make anything from it......because it's always so "different".
 
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