Practical blacksmithing

Front matter

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UNITED STATES OP AMERICA.

PRACTICAL

Chapter I. Iron And Steel

THEIR ANTIQUITY AND GREAT USEFULNESS.

All mechanics, irrespective of the trades which they follow, have so much to do with iron in its various forms, either by working it or by using tools and instruments in the construction of which it forms an important part, tliat a brief consideration of the material, both retrospective and present, cannot fail to be of interest. To trace the development of iron from its earliest known exi tence to the present, and to glance at its use as a material of construction, that, unlike all others can rarely be dispensed with in favor of a .substitute equally desirable, cannot fail to be of the greatest interest.

In the description of the building of Solomon's Temple there is no specific statement that iron was employed, although by inference it is understood that this material must have been Ub.ed in the tools of the workmen, if for no other purpose. It is not to be forgotten that the record says there was neither hammer nor axe, nor tool of iron heard in the house while it was being built. A plausible construction to place upon this assertion is that the parts were fashioned and fitted together at distant places, and were joined noiselessly in completing the structure. This view of the case serves to point out the excellence of the skill of that day, for, however great the care that is exercised at the present time by mechanics, few buildings are put up in which the sound of tools in the shaping of the various parts, after they have been sent to the building for putting up, might be dispensed with.

King David, it 'is said, had in his collection of materials ''iron in abundance for the doors of the gates and for the joinings." Other allusions to iron are to be found in the Old Testament Scriptures. Some passages are of figurative character, where iron Is the emblem of hardness, strength and power. Others are descriptive, and indicate its uses in those early times.

The manufacture of iron existed in India from very remote antiquity, though carried on in a very primitive manner. Vast accumulations of slag and cinder are found spread over large areas in various districts, and the manufacture of iron is still carried on with little change from the ancient process. In one of the temples near Delhi there is a wroughtiron pillar sixty feet in length, which dates as far back as the fourth century of the present era. It is only of late years that the production of a shaft of these dimensions has been possible to the present race of iron-workers.

The extent to which iron was employed by the ancient Egyptians is a problem difficult of solution. When the enormous labor expended upon the masonry and sculpture in the hardest granite, and the beautiful surface and high finish generally displayed in the architectural works of that country are considered, it seems difficult to imagine that tools inferior to the hardest steel could have produced the result, yet the evidence is exceedingly slight that anything of the kind was employed. Bronze is sometimes found in ancient tombs in that country in a variety of forms, but iron is almost entirely wanting. Iron mines have been discovered in Upper Egypt, and the remains of iron-works have been found recently near Mount Sinai. An iron plate was found in one of the pyramids, and a sickle in one of the tombs at Thebes.

The use of iron by the Romans was of comparatively late introduction. The fine specular iron of the Isle of Elba had been smelted by the Etruscans from an early date, but it does not seem to have been extensively used in Italy. It was not until the time of the second Punic War that the Romans, extending their conquests beyond their narrow original seat, obtained supplies of iron and steel from Spain, and discarded their bronze weapons for the harder and keener metal. Iron was little used by any of the ancient nations in building construction. When Virgil describes the splendors of Dido's rising city, no mention is made of iron in any form. Stone, with the addition of bronze for plating, are the materials especially alluded to.

In the New Testament mention is made of an iron gate which would seem to indicate that at that period iron had been brought into use in many forms, more, however, in the way of machinery, armor and weapons, than in building construction. For all constructive purposes bronze was gradually superseded by iron, and during the middle ages was worked with great skill and success. Iron employed at this period was not made by the process of fusion and puddling, but was obtained direct from the ore by roasting with charcoal and working It under the hammer. The metal thus obtained was of excellent quality, and such example^ as have come down to us indicate that it was very skilfully manipulated. Armor and weapons attained a high degree of efficiency, and were finished with great taste.

There are very few specimens remaining in anything like perfection of the mediaeval smith's work. Enough fragments, however, are in existence to indicate the extreme beauty of the workmanship of this age. The rich and graceful curves of the work done at this time, together with their lightness and strength, show what capabilities exist In Iron when freely treated In accordance with Its nature. Probably the grills or screens and the gates of the middle ages exhibited the art of the smith in its greatest perfection. Nothing that has been made in modern times is equal to the specimens which remain of that period. The wonder arises that, with such simple means as were at the command of the mechanics and artists of that day, such wonderful effects could be produced.

During the Romanesque period iron does not seem to have been employed, even in carpentry or masonry. At the end of the twelfth century iron cramps were employed at the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris, to connect the stones of the cobbled corners. The oxidation of these cramps in the course of time had the effect of fracturing the stones. Experience in this practice does not seem to have taught wisdom, for, even at the present day, the mistake of using iron in similar positions has frequently led to like results.

We owe to Germany the discovery of the process by which fusible iron could be smelted from the ore. It probably arose from the gradual improvement of the blowing apparatus, by which the old blast bloomerles were transformed Into blast furnaces. Cast iron was unknown prior to the middle of the sixteenth century. About 1550 the German system, above alluded to, was introduced into England, where there already existed great facilities in the enormous quantity of scoriae accumulated about the ancient bloomeries and in the abundance of timber for fuel. Progress in the art was so rapid that cast-iron ordnance was an article of export from England early in the seventeenth century. As the art of casting made progress, the art of the smith declined. The cheapness of cast iron and the facility with which it could be manipulated, led to its extensive use in every department of life.

In 1735, t^^^ problem of smelting iron with pit coal was successfully solved, but it was not until within a very recent period that the advantages of iron on any great scale developed themselves. Down to the commencement of the present century the casting of iron pipe was so difficult and costly an operation, that in schemes for the supply of water to towns, wooden pipes were adopted for the mains. In 1777 the first experiment was made with iron as a material in bridge building. At present scarcely a bridge of any importance is constructed of other material.

Having thus glanced hastily at the progress of manufacture and the use of iron from the earliest historical periods to the present time, the inquiry comes up, what is to be its influence in the future .f* That it will contribute materially to aid man's power over the elements of nature is certain, but the moral results which are likely to follow lie beyond our province. All true designs arise out of construction. Every style which has. attained any eminence owes

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Its effect to the adoption of its essential parts as sources of beauty rather than an attempt to conceal them. The use of iron in any construction or design is a source of power and effect, put into the hands ot the architect for good or for evil.

The Strength of Wrought Iron and Steel.

There is something very interesting, but not altogether as yet understood, in the behavior and strength of iron and steel when loaded.

It is all very well to institute certain tests to find the number of pounds it requires to break a piece having a sectional area of one square inch, and from this pronounce what is the strength of the iron ; because, with our present knowledge and appliances, it is all we can do, and a test of some kind is of course imperative. It is a curious fact, however, that the strength of a piece of iron or steel varies according to the manner in which the load is applied. If the metal receives its load suddenly, it will break under a less weight than if the load comes on slowly and gradually increases ; and the difference is not a minute one either, for it is as great as 20 per cent under the two extremes of conditions. One of the most eminent constructing engineers in this country stated not long since, in reply to a question, that he would make as much as 20 per cent difference in the strength of two beams to receive the same load, one to have the load suddenly, and the other to have it gradually applied. From this it is a fair and reasonable deduction that if the load, when applied, caused vibration, the beam would require still greater dimensions to be of equal strength, because vibrations are simply minute movements, and, in the case of horizontal beams, on moving downward increase the pressure of the load.

A short time since some experiments were made to ascertain the strength of iron and steel wire, two specimens of each size of wire being used, one just as the iron came from the mill and the other an annealed specimen.

The wires were suspended vertically, and a certain weight, as say lo lbs., was hung on them. Then in some cases a ^Ib. weight per day was added, in others i lb. per day, in yet others the weights were increased as fast as they could be put on, and in every instance it was found that the breaking strains increased according as the time between the increases of weight was made longer, the amount varying from lo to 20 per cent. The failure of the boiler plates of the English steamship Livadia elicited some interesting facts and strange opinions upon the behavior of low-grade steel. The facts concerning these plates are given below. The boiler was 14 feet 3 inches diameter by 16 feet long. The plates were ^-inch thick, lap-jointed and treble riveted. The plates were all punched, then slightly heated and bent to shape^ afterwards put together, and the rivet holes reamed out to size. While under this treatment one of the plates fell out of the slings on to an iron plate and was cracked right across the rivet holes. Naturally this gave some anxiety, but after the plates were all in the boiler itself, they cracked across the rivet holes in nearly all directions ; that is, many of them did.

Investigation was immediately set up, chemically and mechanically, when it appeared, as nearly as could be ascertained, that although the stock was good of which the plates were made, it had not been thoroughly worked under the hammer before rolling.

Dr. Siemens, the Inventor of the process which bears his name, asserts that annealing plates, either before or after working (punching), is of no advantage ; tending, if anything, to injure rather than benefit the materials. Many practical men, however, hold views in opposition to Dr. Siemens on this question. — By Joshua Rose.

The Rotting and Crystallization of Iron.

I noticed an article lately, in which an Iron worker, who claims an experience of fifty years in his trade, says that iron rots as well as crystallizes under strain and jar. The latter part of this statement is correct in degree only. The springs of vehicles deteriorate by use and excessive strain, but not to the extent which the writer of the article I refer to represents, as the springs of thousands of old vehicles will attest, in which not a leaf is broken, although the remainder of the gear is worn out.

And although iron may be crystalline in the fracture it does not lose its tensile strength to any great extent, unless under a very great strain or jar, as in the case of quartz-mill stamp stems, which are lifted and dropped about once a second, are run night and day, including Sundays, and even then will stand several years of this hard usage before breaking. The danger of iron losing its tensile strength is greatly exaggerated in the article in question. If it were not so people would be afraid to go over and under the Brooklyn bridge.

The statement that iron rots is absolutely untrue, and if the crowbars referred to in the article mentioned would not weld readily, and had a bad smell when heated, the odor was from the sulphur and phosphorus which the iron contained, and which was present in the iron when it was made, like much of the first iron in early attempts at iron making by usine" stone coal. The iron did not absorb, it could not have absorbed sulphur and phosphorus from age or exposure to the atmosphere.

The art of iron making has progressed in spite of all statements to the contrary, and iron is made smelted with stone coal, which is as good as the best

Swedish charcoal Iron, and even better for some purposes, and the iron makers manufacture any grade of Iron to suit price or purpose.

When Iron, by reason of long-continued strain or jar, breaks^ showing a crystalline fracture, its chemical constituents are still the same as when it was made, and when heated and welded it will resume its fibrous appearance and Its original toughness, as I know from much practical experience in welding broken stamp stems and heavy iron axles.

Rolling mills were invented about a hundred years ago, but if the practical wiseacre is in favor of the old system of laboriously pounding out a bar of iron filled with hammer marks by the trip hammer, why that settles the rolling mills of course. — By R. R.

Steel and Iron. .

I have been turning in my mind some of the generally accepted theories about iron and steel, and wondering when the general public will drop the notion that the main distlnofuishlnof feature between the two is that one will harden and the other will not.

Does a piece harden ? It Is steel.

Is it found Impossible to harden another piece? It Is iron.

Many people go no further than this in deciding the character of pieces under examination, and still there is steel that will not harden which Is almost equal to tool steel. Growing out of these wide differences between different steels and irons there is a continuous discussion and much misconception as to real facts. That a piece of Swedes iron of irregular structure, with minute seams, sand streaks and impurities, should contain sufficient carbon to harden would hardly make it valuable for edge tools. Nor would a piece of cast-steel of the most unexceptionable structure be of any great value for the same use, in a commercial sense, if the necessary carbon were lacking. How often is heard the very positive assertion in regard to certain articles which should be made of steel and hardened, " They are nothing but iron," and quite recently there has appeared in trade journals an article on cutlery, in which it is charged that " table knives are made of iron, on account of the greater facility with which iron can be worked."

That cast-iron shears and scissors with chilled edges, and cast-iron hammers and hatchets sandwiched in with malleable iron and steel castings, to take the place of instruments which are generally supposed to be forged from steel and hardened and tempered in the regular way, are to be found on the market is true, but when it comes to goods which are made in the regular way, we need not believe that wrought iron is used to any great extent where steel should be. That a tool is soft does not prove that it might not have been hardened to be one of the best of its kind. That a tool proves to be as brittle as glass, breaking at the very beginning of service, does not prove that the steel of which it was made was of poor quality, for, properly treated, it might have been hardened to be of the very best.

In this matter of deciding as to the merits of steel there is too much of jumping at conclusions, and so the self-constituted judges are continually called upon to reverse their decisions. No decision would be considered to be in order on a matter of law until the evidence was all in, and not till the evidence was laid before a judge and jury would they be asked to render a decision. No more can a man expect to decide offhand the character of steel, for what may be attributed to poor quality may be due to bad condition caused by unfair treatment, while to know what would have been fair treatment one must know the quality of steel. Much stress is put upon the fact that only certain brands of imported steel are used by some iVmerican manufacturers, who tell us that ''they can depend upon it every time — well, nearly every time," and that "they don't have to be so particular about heating it. If it is heated a little too hot it won't crack, but will stand to do something. They like a little leeway." These men seem to think that it is just that particular brand of steel which possesses the qualities of safety of which they think so much, and we hear them say, 's steel does this and that, but you cannot do it with -'s steel, it would

fly all in pieces treated the same way."

How is it? Does anybody who has studied upon the subject a little, suppose that when a particular grade of steel of any brand has been found to be right for a certain use, while the first bar used of some other brand without reference to the erade has proved to be apparently of no value, that that settles it, or that ground is furnished for saying that the steel from one manufacturer shows certain characteristics which the other does not ?

Then, after a certain grade of any brand of steel has been settled upon as right, it will not do to condemn too broadly steel of another brand, which with the same treatment accorded to the favorite steel fails, for it is quite likely that, with the different treatment which this grade of the new brand requires, it might prove equally as good as the '' long-tried and only trusted steel," or, if not of the right grade, a grade could be furnished of the new brand fully as good as the best of the old brand, while it is reasonably certain that had a change of grade without change of brand been made the result would have been much the same. Too much weight is put upon a name ; and we hear steel-workers lauding the especially good qualities of this or that steel and condemning the bad qualities of others, when the fact is that both the words of praise and blame apply to the grades of steel and their treatment and condition, not to the fact that this or that was made in Pittsburg or Sheffield. The steel maker, whether he will or not, must, and does, make a variety of grades — tempers — of steel ; and upon a judicious and honest selection of the right temper for any particular use, and upon just the treatment required — especially in hardening — hang the desired results.

*' Jessup steel doesn't do this," says one of its admirers, but a grade of Jessup's can be had which will, without doubt.

Said an enthusiastic admirer of a *' special" brand of imported steel to the writer :

" That steel stands to do what no American steel will do at all ; on this work-tools from it have stood to work five and even six hours without grinding."

A few months later this same man said, in speakinof of the same work :

*' The result in using tools made from the pieces of American steel which you sent by mail were simply wonderful ; some of them stood to work without grinding two entire days of ten hours !"

With steel of proper temper from reliable makers, there are possibilities of which many men who look upon steel as steel simply, and who judge its quality in advance by the brand it bears, have never dreamed ; and of those who pride themselves on being thoroughly American, and still persist in using English steel, what can be thought, except that they have not carefully investigated to learn the merits of American steel ? For it is well known that for every difficult job done with English steel there is

Fig. I — Wrought Iron Balustrade by M. Baudrit. of Paris.

the equal done daily with American steel, — S. W. Goodyear, in tJie Age of Steel,

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Modern French and English Wrought Ironwork.

Attention has been called at different times to the possibilities in wrought iron work in the art line,

Fig. 2 — Wrought Iron Railing by Ratcliff & Tyler, of Birmingham.

and examples of work have occasionally been presented showincr what has been done and may be done in this direction. Figs, i and 2 show two very handsome designs, Fig. i being a specimen of wrought ironwork from the establishment of M. Baudrit, of Paris. It is original in design and admirable in execution. There is a charming variety in the work, characteristic of the high productions of French artists. The lower portion is solid, as the foundation of the terminal post of a balustrade should be, but it lies on the stairs naturally and elegantly. The upright pillar and hand-rail are sufficiently massive, while the decorative portion has all the light elegance of a flower.

In this country our designers are wont to draw work of this kind for execution in cast iron, and so accustomed have we become to casting all ornamental work of a similar character that our blacksmiths scarcely know what it is possible to accomplish with the hammer and anvil. Fig. 2 is not less striking, and is an example of work in good taste for a similar purpose to that shown in the first instance. It is as unlike it, however, in character and execution as the two nations from which these two pieces of work come. Fig. 2 represents a continuous balustrade executed by Messrs. Ratcliff & Tyler, of Birmingham. An oval in the center is very happily arranged panel fashion between the scroll work which serves the purpose of pilasters. The design is neither too ornamental nor is it poor. The connecting links of the work, including the attachments to the stairs, are graceful and effective. This pattern also, If made in this country, would very likely be executed in cast metal, and would lose all those peculiar characteristics that render it attractive, and, as at present, considered an example of true art workmanship. The mechanical ingenuity of our smiths is universally acknowledged, but in artistic taste and In the ability to execute ornamental work they are very much behind those of other nations.

Upsetting Steel and Iron.

I have recently read some things In relation to the upsetting of iron and steel, which are so much at variance with the generally accepted ideas on the subject, and at the same time so flatly contradict what the every-day experiences of many mechanics show to be facts, as to prompt me to offer some testimony.

First, as to the " Upsetting of Iron," for under this heading may be found in a trade journal of recent date a very interesting reference to the " quality of movements of the particles of iron under pressure or percussion." . . . " Red-hot iron can be pressed to fill a mold as clearly and exactly as so much wax could be." . . . '' Cold iron can also be molded Into form by pressure." . . . ''The heading of rivets, bolts and wood-screw blanks shows some surprising results in the compression of iron ; a No. 6 i-inch screw requires a piece of wire slightly more than i 1-2 inches lono- to form It. Yet the total length of the screw blank headed is just one inch. . . . Now, it has been proved by experiments with shorter bits of wire that less than fivesixteenths of an inch of the extra eight-sixteenths is required to form the screw head. What becomes of the remaining more than three-sixteenths of an inch in leno^th of an oriorinal i 1-2 inches that make the i-inch screw blank ? There can be but one answer — the iron is driven upon itself, ... so that I 1-16 inches of wire are compressed into seveneiohths of an inch In leno^th without increasing the diameter of the wire."

This flatly contradicts the assertions of scientific investigators, who have, after making many exhaustive experiments^ concluded that cold working of iron and steel, such as hammering, rolling, drawing, pressing, upsetting, etc., do not increase the specific gravity. Is it likely that in the many careful experiments made by the most painstaking of men, the experiments involving the most accurate measurements possible, added to the unquestionable tests of specific gravity, there has been uniformly a misconception of the real facts, and that experiments made by measuring a blank piece of wire — possibly with a boxwood rule — before heading, and again measuring the length of blank produced by heading the same wire, are to upset this proven fact, that ordinary cold working does not make iron and steel more dense ?

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Where does the iron go, then ? It goes to round up the contour of the die in which the blank is headed, that entire part of the block constituting the body, and to fill the die for the entire length of the body of the blank, through the upsetting process, to a fullness which in solid dies defies the efforts of any but the best of carefully hardened and tempered steel punches, from best of steel, to push out of the dies after heading rivets and screw blanks, making the question of what steel to use for '' punching out in solid die heading," one of the most important connected with the business.

In heading a screw-blank or rivet, the first effect produced by the longitudinal pressure applied is to upset the piece of wire for its entire length. The diminution in length will produce an exactly proportionate increase in diameter up to the point when the wire fills the die so tightly as to transfer the most of the upsetting effect of the continued pressure to that part of the wire not encircled by the die, and then comes the heading, which begins by Increasing diameter and proportionately decreasing length, the metal being in a measure held by contact with the die and heading punch from lateral expansion. As the pressure continues, It assumes first a pear shape, simply following the not necessarily written law under which all metals under pressure yield In the direction of the least resistance, and soon a shoulder Is formed, which, coming in contact with the face of the die, or bottom

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of countersink, depending upon the shape of die, the direct or entire resistance to the pressure appHed has no longer to be supplied by the body of the wire as at first. But still, as the pear-shaped bulb is gradually pressed out of that shape into the shape required in the completed blank or rivet, a time will come when a portion of the superfluous metal back of the body of the blank, or representing the center of the head, can escape more easily in the direction of the pressure, thereby still further increasing the diameter of the body of the blank, than to escape altogether in a lateral direction under the immense pressure required toward the completion of the heading process.

*' Without increasing the diameter of the wire," we quoted, it would not be possible, in any commercial sense, to do anything of the kind. Did the writer who stated as a fact that this w^as the rule realize the improbability of the statement which he virtually makes, i. c, that over 17^ per cent of the wire entering into the body of the blank described by him has been lost, if, as he says, the diameter remains unchanoed ?