Conner Michaux Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 I just came across this video and I’m curious if the same process can be used for Wrought iron? Im wondering why leather is used as the carbon source rather than char coal, as far as I know that has quite a bit of carbon in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerrod Miller Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 14 minutes ago, Conner Michaux said: Im wondering why leather is used as the carbon source rather than char coal, as far as I know that has quite a bit of carbon in it. Because they (those in antiquity) didn't know anything about carbon being the key and the guy in the video was trying to reproduce their recipe. 15 minutes ago, Conner Michaux said: I just came across this video and I’m curious if the same process can be used for Wrought iron? Yes, but you will still have the slag inclusions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerrod Miller Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 Oh, and his mild steel probably started with significantly more carbon in it than wrought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conner Michaux Posted August 12, 2020 Author Share Posted August 12, 2020 Thanks for the Info. If I understand the video correctly (which I probably don’t) the longer you soak the steel the more carbon is soaked into it? Also, does it matter what kind of leather I use? I have some but I think it’s tanned and I don’t know if it needs to be raw hide or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerrod Miller Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 I would recommend not using leather, use charcoal. And yes, diffusion takes time and temperature to achieve depth. It will be a gradient with the surface having more carbon and decreasing amount down to the base material quantity. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conner Michaux Posted August 13, 2020 Author Share Posted August 13, 2020 How do I determine the best time/temp to soak it at? In other words, what would you do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Myers Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 Make up several packets. Keep them generally the same size and shape, same amount of carbon source and fire each one for different periods. Then you can break them and see the amount of carbon diffusion you get per inch of material for a given soak time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerrod Miller Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 I wouldn't do it . This is something one does simply for the fun of doing it, and it doesn't strike my interests enough to count as fun. It certainly isn't going to produce a cheaper or better product than a modern mono-steel. But if someone else wanted to I would recommend doing as Brian stated above. Then make a few more coupons and repeat the same process once you determined the right soak time so you have a few identical samples. Then I would normalize them a variety of times; probably one, three, and five times to start with. Then quench and break those to see what the grain structure looks like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conner Michaux Posted August 13, 2020 Author Share Posted August 13, 2020 Thanks for the info I just thought it would be a cool think to try out. I don’t have much wrought so I can only do a couple little experiments with it but I’ll try it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Longmire Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 There's also a LOT of information on the forum about it. Look up "shear steel." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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