Hello everyone,

I was wondering if there could be a way to mimic wrought iron on a homogenous steel blade to give the effect that said knife is of a more traditional construction.

I know it would be impossible to show the slight "bump" or transition between the metals.

Have any folks attempted to mimic wroUght on a piece?

Thanks,



:)

Most medieval period iron blades have some (0.1% to 0.5%) carbon. I think you have guessed the difficulty of simulating it as it varied greatly within a single piece, and had slag inclusions. What blacksmiths consider to be ideal (Victorian era) wrought iron is very low carbon, less than 0.1%. Although, period material called wrought iron may have had 0.05% to 0.25% carbon variations with slag. The best, commonly available, flat bar stock type substitute I can buy today is AISI 1018 steel (0.15% to 0.2% carbon) which is pretty consistent within a single piece. 1018 has been used and mentioned on some of the custom reproductions for guards and pommel furniture pieces. Left with some forging marks on it, the rustic appearance can be attractive.

As practice material, some pattern welders have combined low carbon simple steel alloys such as 1018, 1040, and 1060 (carbon content increasing with 10XX; XX going higher) as an easy to weld and forgiving combination for "practice" welding. The impurities are different, and etching can reveal slight color variations between different alloy layers. However, most knife and blade makers don't wish to sell such a combination since its mechanical properties are now considered substandard in terms of performance. Another somewhat similar material might be welded cable, which can have trapped slag visible within it.

I don't know if the above fully addresses your interests or not. If I wanted the mechanical traits of period wrought iron I would settle on AISI 1018. If I wanted to simulate the appearance after etching and fine polishing, I would attempt to weld up some 1018 and 1040/1060 in a somewhat random folded and twisted billet worked up into about 100 layers. Neither simulation would be particularly good as judged through a microscope with etching though.

Jared