Wrought Iron & Blacksmiths When iron ore is smelted into usable metal, a certain amount of carbon is usually alloyed with the iron. (Charcoal is almost pure carbon.) The amount of carbon significantly affects the properties of the metal. If the carbon content is over 2%, the metal is called cast iron, because it has a relatively low melting point and is easily cast. It is quite brittle, however, and is therefore not used for blacksmithing. If the carbon content is between 0.25% and 2%, the resulting metal is tool steel, which can be heat treated as discussed above. When the carbon content is below 0.25%, the metal is either "wrought iron" or "mild steel." The terms are never interchangeable. In preindustrial times, the material of choice for blacksmiths was wrought iron. This iron had a very low carbon content, and also included up to 5% of glassy slag. This slag content made the iron very tough, gave it considerable resistance to rusting, and allowed it to be more easily "forge welded," a process in which the blacksmith permanently joins two pieces of iron, or a piece of iron and a piece of steel, by heating them nearly to a white heat and hammering them together. Forge welding is more difficult to do with modern mild steel. Modern steel production, using the blast furnace, cannot produce true wrought iron, so this material is now a difficult-to-find specialty product. Modern blacksmiths generally substitute mild steel for making objects that were traditionally of wrought iron. ~ Wikipedia

Blacksmiths work with iron, the 'black' metal, and sometimes steel, its derivative. The black color comes from fire scale, a layer of oxides that forms on the surface of the metal during heating. The term 'smith' originates from the word 'smite', which means 'to hit'. Thus, a blacksmith is a person who smites black metal. Blacksmiths work by heating pieces of wrought iron or steel until the metal becomes soft enough to be shaped with hand tools, such as a hammer, anvil and chisel. Heating is accomplished by the use of a forge fueled by propane, natural gas, coal, charcoal, or coke.

Modern Blacksmiths may also employ an oxyacetylene or similar blowtorch for more localized heating. Color is important for indicating the temperature and workability of the metal: As iron is heated to increasing temperatures, it first glows red, then orange, yellow, and finally white; then it melts. The ideal heat for most forging is the bright yellow-orange color appropriately known as a "forging heat." Because they must be able to see the glowing color of the metal, many blacksmiths work in dim, low-light conditions. The techniques of smithing may be roughly divided into forging (sometimes called "sculpting"), welding, heat treating, and finishing. ~ Wikipedia

Want To Learn About Blacksmithing? Try M.T. Richardson's Practical Blacksmithing - Part One and Practical Blacksmithing - Part Two. Also Alexander Weyger's The Making of Tools.

In the 1960s the price of steel production was dropping due to recycling and even using the Aston process wrought iron production was a labor-intensive process. It has been estimated that the production of wrought iron costs approximately twice as much as the production of low carbon steel. In the United States the last plant closed in 1969. The last in Great Britain (and the world) was the Atlas Ironworks of Thomas Walmley Ltd in Bolton, which closed in 1973. Its equipment, of a type dating from the 1860s, was moved to the Blists Hill site of Ironbridge Gorge Museum for preservation. Some wrought iron is still being produced for heritage restoration purposes, but only by recycling scrap. ~ Wikipedia