Wrought Iron

Wrought iron is commercially pure iron, having a very small carbon content (not more than 0.15 percent), but usually containing some slag. It is tough, malleable and ductile and is easily welded. However, it is too soft for blades. more...

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Terminology

Wrought iron is so named because it is worked from a "bloom" of porous iron mixed with slag and other impurities. The word "wrought" is an archaic past tense of the verb to work. As irregular past-tense forms in English have historically been phased out over long periods of time, wrought became worked. Wrought iron literally means worked iron.

When consumers look for wrought iron goods they may also refer to them as rod iron or rot iron. The term also could mean the consumer is looking for one of three different possibilities: actual wrought iron items, hand forged items, or simply the "look" of wrought iron. Even though the official term is wrought iron, the other variations have become commonplace.

Overview

Wrought iron has been used for thousands of years, and represents the "iron" that is referred to throughout western history. It is a fibrous material with many strands of slag mixed into the metal. These slag inclusions give it a "grain" resembling wood, with distinct appearance when etched or bent to the point of failure.

Wrought iron has been almost totally replaced by mild steel. It is not produced at all today for commercial use, although one company in the U.K. is known to reprocess scrap, antique wrought iron into stock for commercial sale. It was used when a tough material was required, in applications such as rivets, chains, railway couplings, water and steam pipes, raw material for manufacturing of steel, bolts and nuts, horse shoe bars, handrails, straps for timber roof trusses, boiler tubes, etc. References relating to wrought iron may occasionally still be found in engineering literature.

Ornamental ironwork utilises the great malleability of wrought iron, and is still often referred to as "wrought iron work" even though today it is more likely to be made from mild steel

History

Bloomery process

Wrought iron was originally produced by a variety of smelters, described today as bloomeries. A number of different forms of bloomery were used at different places and times. The bloomery would be charged with charcoal and iron ore (an oxide or carbonate) and lit. Air was blown in through a tuyere to heat the bloomery to a temperature somewhat below the melting point of iron. In the course of the smelt, slag would melt and run out, and carbon monoxide from the charcoal would reduce the ore to iron, which formed a spongy mass. The iron remained in the solid state. If the bloomery was allowed to become hot enough to melt the iron, carbon would dissolve into it and form "pig" or "cast" iron, but that was not the intention.

Read more at Wikipedia.org