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The Outpost This forum is dedicated to all who share a love for, and a desire to make good knives, and have fun doing it. We represent a diverse group of smiths and knifemakers who bring numerous methods to their craft.

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  #1  
Old 02-11-2002, 04:02 PM
thehomesteader
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WI info 2


Thanks for your kind words Dana! I am posting these things out of my personal notebooks, and some word functions seem to make funny things happen, sorry if it makes it hard to read!_ _ _

_ In a previous thread, Dana had mentioned the quality of iron being related to what it was previously used for.


My own experience and the teaching of others have confirmed this. While there are no guarantees, smiths of old definitely seem to have segregated iron by its quality. One particular difficulty in traditional smithing is trying techniques you may read or hear about. Techniques that are industry specific may prove extremely difficult if not impossible today because the quality of materials is insufficient to support the technique. In reading old articles and account books, you come across many different types of iron. An example most of us can relate to is "best warranted scrap" which is seen on a lot of old anvils.
_ _ _ _ It is counterintuitive for folks raised in the industrial age, but scrap actually denotes a very high grade of iron. The term scrap iron seems to be used interchangeably with the term piled iron, although I see piled more commonly on early 20th century references. Could it be that this term became more popular later?
To make this grade of iron several small pieces are brought to a welding heat and joined to create a slab. I have seen archival footage from the Netherton chain company, which I think was around the or 30s, in which they were forging a 7-ton anchor using this method! The individual slabs looked like they weighed no more than about 400-500 lbs, and were themselves joined up from scrap pieces which looked no bigger than @ 1 square x 18 or so long.
_ _ _ _ One the benefits of this Piling is that excess slag is forced out of the iron, refining it and making it stronger. This technique is practical for the small shop and can be used to refine iron that may not be suitable for the task at hand.
_ _ _ _ To create your own small pile, you must first have sufficient scrap. This can come from iron that is too weak for the purpose, small bits that have been cut off from other projects, the ends from multiple nick and fracture tests, or previous forgings that have failed to pass muster. The instructions that follow are based on my own, limited experience. Feel free to experiment.
Begin by heating and forging a small piece of scrap into a square collar that will be used to hold the others during welding. The collars I have used have varied greatly but all seem to be somewhere on the order of 3/8x3/16 with an area of approx. 3 square. The collar must be welded as considerable strain is placed upon it to ensure containment of scrap pieces during welding, in spite of expansion from heat. Take the pieces of scrap and hammer them into bars of the same length, regardless of thickness. These should be fitted into the collar as tightly as possible and then further tightened with wedges made from more scrap. I have found it handy to leave one bar longer for use as a handle when manipulating the pile.
_ _ _ _ Take a slow even heat to prevent expansion along one side of the collar, and then flux and weld. At first just tack the end and compress the bars together, this can tricky as an errant blow will cause distortion in the pile. After it is all welded, heavier blows will begin to form the bar. I have done a 3x4x 5 pile with only a hand hammer (5lbs.) but it would be very handy indeed to have a larger sledge and striker or some type of mechanical hammer to deliver heavier blows at this point. How far you take it depends on what you are looking for, but it should be noted that the more hammering you do, the better a bar you will end up with. My photos disappeared into the abyss of photopoint but I am working on getting some more back up. In the mean time check out my link below, I have updated my blacksmithing album to include two picks of a framed and ready to weld pile.

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Old 02-11-2002, 04:15 PM
Bog Iron
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WI


I believe it is in the Byers WI book that shows a picture of a large shaft being turned that was welded up from a bunch of smaller pieces of WI---you can see the individual pieces on the end. I'll look it up tonight.

Bog Iron
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  #3  
Old 02-11-2002, 06:13 PM
Dana Acker
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Re: WI


This is really cool. You guys always come up with some great food for thought. The Blade, Homesteader and Bog Iron ought to start your own University of metal working.

For the rest of us out here in dataland, I hope you, like myself, take advantage of all the knowledge that is being spread around in some of these posts. There's lots to learn here...and we're getting it free.

With your permission, Gents, when these threads have run their course, I'm going to move them to the NT Archives forum (See jump list at bottom of page.) This stuff is too good to let slip away. Thanks again for all your input.
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  #4  
Old 02-12-2002, 06:27 PM
JossDelage
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UK producer still in activity


www.realwroughtiron.com

They are a supplier of real WI to the artistic community. They have a lot of info on their site about WI...

JD
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  #5  
Old 02-13-2002, 10:30 AM
Dana Acker
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Re: UK producer still in activity


Great link. Thanks Joss.
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  #6  
Old 06-02-2002, 09:51 AM
ghostdog
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bump


Bumping this as a reminder to Dana.




ghostdog
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