I had a steel (mild steel) security gate installed about 7 years ago and now its turning into rust while the wrought iron gate on the same building installed over 40 years ago has no rust whatsoever. From my understanding its easy to work with and easy to weld. Wrought iron is great stuff but we don't make it anymore in the US since 1900. Why is that? Could we still get wrought iron and is it expensive like stainless steel?
AFAIK, the closest we have anymore is mild steel, which still has a significant carbon content. I believe that wrought iron is almost pure iron. I suppose you could purge the carbon from mild steel by reheating it in an oxygen environment (make a miniature Bessemer furnace?), but I'm no metalurgist.
I'm not a metalurgist either but I know a bit about real wrought iron.
Wrought iron doesn't rust as badly as steel because of the silicate slag that it contains. This helps it resist rusting. Carbon content has little to do with it.
As far as I know wrought iron may have been made in the U.S. into the
1950's but not in large quantities. It's one of those technologies that disapeared quickly after WWII.In the U.K. there is a company called "The Real Wrought Iron Company" there is good information on their website.
Kelley
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