Blacksmithing
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Blacksmithing - James M. Drew
I
IRON AND STEEL
IRON and steel are the materials with which the blacksmith works. While most people are familiar with such terms as wrought iron, cast iron and malleable cast iron, Bessemer steel and mild steel, it is necessary for the blacksmith to have a clear idea of just what these metals are, how they are produced, and the uses to which they are put. To describe the different kinds of iron and steel is the purpose of this chapter.
IRON
Iron is the most common and useful of all metals. It is found in many parts of the world, never in its pure state except in some meteorites which have fallen to earth from some other region. Iron is found in the form of ore which may be a combination of iron and solid rock, or in the form of a soft red oxide that may be scooped up with steam shovels, as is done in some of the open mines in northern Minnesota.
To get the iron from the ore, it is necessary to heat it to a very high temperature, so that the iron becomes a liquid which flows like water. This process is called smelting. The usual method consists in packing the ore in layers in a tall furnace, with layers of coke and limestone between the layers of ore. The whole is brought to a very high heat and becomes a mass of liquid at the bottom of the furnace. The iron, being heavier than the other material, settles to the bottom, where it is drawn off and poured into molds holding about 100 pounds of metal each. The lumps of iron so made are called pig iron.
What we know as cast iron is made by melting pig iron and running it into molds of whatever form we wish to have. Cast iron is very hard and quite brittle. It is not pure iron, but contains several other elements, the most important of which is carbon. It is the carbon in the iron which makes it hard and brittle. If cast iron is kept at a high temperature for a long time the carbon is burned out of it and it becomes softer and tougher. To make what is known as malleable cast iron, the articles to be made are first cast from pig iron, then placed in ovens where they are kept at a white heat for about a week. This high heat burns out most of the carbon, and the castings become tough enough to stand some bending without danger of breaking. Malleable castings can therefore be used for many purposes where ordinary cast iron would be too brittle.
Swedish iron, known also as Norway iron,
is a kind of wrought iron which is still to be found in the market. It is used where very soft and very tough iron is required, as, for example, in the making of rivets and clinch nails. It is so soft that shavings may be cut from it with a good jackknife. It is soft and tough because it is made from the purest iron ore to be found, and in smelting it only charcoal is used. Charcoal contains none of the injurious chemicals found in other coal.
STEEL
Mild steel, also called soft steel or machinery steel, which has almost entirely taken the place of the old-fashioned wrought iron, is made from pig iron by a process which removes almost all the carbon. There are several methods of making mild steel, the most common of which is known as the Bessemer process. This consists of melting the pig iron in large furnaces and holding it at a high heat while air is forced through the molten mass to burn out the carbon. From the furnace the molten steel is poured into molds about the size of a man’s body, forming what are known as ingots. These ingots are heated to welding heat and rolled out into bars or beams or railroad rails, or into any shape required. One ingot will make two lengths of railroad rail.
Tool steel is simply pure iron to which a very small percentage of carbon has been added. It is one of the wonders of chemistry that the addition of a small part of one per cent of carbon will change soft iron to stiff steel and give it the property known as temper. If we heat a bar of pure iron to a yellow heat, then suddenly cool it in water, no change is made in it. It may be bent the same as before the heating. If we do the same thing with a bar of steel it will break when we try to bend it. Yet the only difference between the two bars is that the steel contains a part of one per cent of carbon.
In making tool steel, rods of pure iron are packed in charcoal in a furnace which may be sealed so that it is practically airtight. The whole mass of iron and charcoal is heated to near a welding heat and kept at that temperature for some time. The iron is not allowed to melt but is kept near the melting point. During this process, a small amount of carbon from the charcoal unites with the iron. A rod is occasionally drawn out of the furnace and tested to determine the amount of carbon absorbed by the iron. When the right percentage of carbon has been absorbed, the furnace is allowed to cool. We now have what is known as blister steel; so called because the surface of the rods is covered with blisters.
It is easy to understand that rods so treated will have very much less carbon in the middle than toward the outside; and any tool made from such steel would be unsatisfactory. What is known to the trade as shear steel is made by welding together rods of blister steel. This welding together and drawing out of the rods makes a somewhat Better grade of steel than the blister steel, and some kinds of cheap tools are made of it.
To get a tool steel which is of even carbon content throughout, blister steel is melted in crucibles and then drawn out into bars of any required size. This is called crucible steel and is the kind of steel from which all the best tools are made.
II
THE FARM SHOP
THE FARM shop and its use should fill an important place in the planning of the farm work and should be given careful thought. The repairs that may be made and the work that may be done year after year in a well-planned, well-lighted, properly equipped workshop, will repay the first cost many times over, in addition to providing pleasant and profitable occupation when the weather or other conditions prevent outside work.
LOCATION AND PLAN
The question of whether the shop is to be a separate building, or is to be combined with a garage or farm machinery building, or other structure, will depend upon what buildings are already in existence on the farm. Each farmstead will have its own problem along this line.
Possible fire hazard should be taken into consideration in connection with combining the forge shop with any other building. In any case it would be desirable to have the shop some little distance from the barns.
The foundation for the shop should be laid deep enough to rest upon solid subsoil, and should extend at least 6 inches above ground level. This will protect the sills from decay, and allow the floor to be far enough above the outside ground surface to insure dryness, in case a gravel or earthen floor is decided upon.
A concrete floor is to be preferred if it can be afforded; but a very good floor may be made of a mixture of clay and cinders, or clay and fine gravel and sand properly rammed down to make it solid.
In case the forge is to be placed in a shop which is already built,