doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Iron / Steel possible defiinitions

The Damascus Explained thread has become a "tad too large". I would like to throw out some definitions. They come from several sources.

If you find an error, or can think of a better definition, please feel free.

Any additional terms with definition are welcome.


BLOOM
A porous, impure mass of iron produced in a semi-solid condition as the direct result of smelting iron ore at temperatures below the melting point of the iron. Also known as a Loup.

CARBURIZATION
The absorption of carbon by iron heated in charcoal fire or other carbon rich atomsphere.

CAST IRON
Cast iron is made by remelting pig iron, often along with substantial quantities of scrap iron and scrap steel, and taking various steps to remove undesirable contaminants.

PIG IRON
Pig iron is the immediate product of smelting iron ore and limestone in a furnace.

SKELP
A long, relatively thin and narrow strip of metal intended to rolled and welded into tube or gun barrel.

SMELTING
Extracting metal from its ore by heating.

WOOTZ (Really looking for a simpler definition here.)
1.) A high carbon steel made in a crucible where the material is melted and has pronounced dentritic formation in ingot form (when cooled) and exhibits a macro pattern of cementite cluster sheets (carbides) when forged into a finished product.

2.) The material is a combination of iron, carbon and glass placed in a clay crucible and fired till it goes molten (thought there are a few other manufacturing methods in history). The iron will gather carbon from the charcoal and become steel and the glass will melt and act as a flux which will chemically bond with the impurities in the iron and remove them.
The molten steel is allowed to cool and the resulting solidified ingot is then removed from the crucible ( the crucible is broken).
It usually has between 1 and 2% carbon.

WROUGHT IRON
Shaped by any one of numberous rolling, pressing or hammering techniques, often, but not always, while at elevated temperatures. Originally produced directly from ore. Later remelted and purified PIG IRON in a blast furnace.

Pete

Good idea Pete, and I'm staying out of this one

“Wootz Steel as the Acme of Mankind’s Metallurgical Heritage”
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:eW_...;cd=5&gl=us

Glossary of terms:
http://www.davistownmuseum.org/PDFs/GlossaryOfFerrousMetallurgyTerms.pdf

PeteM:

Right off I think that you need to include the term coke & a general definition of steel, less silicon, oxidation of iron, etc.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

Iron is an element, even though admitting all metal sold over the years as Iron, were not elementally pure, while steel is "Always" an alloy, the most basic form being simply Iron & Carbon, though there is usually a little silicon, sulfur & often phospherous present. Many other constituents have been alloyed into steel over the years to gain some advantage for a given purpose.
Normal Cast Iron has a large amount of free carbon & while compartively strong in tension or compression is rather brittle to an impact, smack your Lodge skillet across a rock to test this.

Check this, but I believe cast iron is defined as having a carbon content above 2%. 1.9% carbon is tops for high carbon steel.

I believe a small % of manganese(?) is essential to Wootz.

Pete and Drew,

Thanks for all of the info.....

Phil

Smelting: Extracting metal from it's ore by heating in the presence of a reducing agent.

OB

Note that generally speaking the term steel as mentioned means it is an alloy containing carbon. The silicon, sulfer & phoserphorus are more or less from the process of smelting I believe. If one sees the term "Alloy Steel" this can normally be taken to mean some other elemrnt than carbon has been added to the mix. Chromium, nickel, molynedum, vanadium etc are common alloying elements.
It would seem that about 1/16% of carbon is the minimum to be classified as steel rather than iron. This puts it into the class known as 1006, the 10 designating a plain carbon steel & the 06 the percentage. Note that under this original SAE 4-digit designation no provision was made for alloys containing more than 1% average carbon content. I believe the steels having more than this were all listed under a special tool steel designation.
Ordinary Grey Cast iron as I recall was in about a 5% carbon range, but don't hold me to this. I suspect the 2% given by Rocketman is correct, but this would I think be found only in very high grade castings, & in what is also referred to as "Semi-Steel" castings. Another fine grained cast iron is known as "Meehanite". In my early machine shop days (pre CNC Lathes) we used to get this in plate form to use for making tracer templates. It was considerably less dirty to machine than ordinary grey iron.

2-piper:

Bell in "Manufacuter of Iron & Steel" 1884 - gives Swedish pig iron as having:

Pig -------------------- malleable iron
4% Carbon -------------------- 0.2% Carbon
1/2% Silicon -------------------- 0.1% Silicon
0.3% Sulphur -------------------- 0.025% Sulphur
.15% Phosphorus-------------------- 0.1% Phosphorus
1.8% Manganese -------------------- 0.05% Manganese
----------------------------- 0% Arsenic

Which gives something near 7% inpurities or foreign matter for pig iron and 0.475% max for Swedish malleable iron. With your mention of "Chromium, molynedum, vanadium" being in the unobtainiums category, did you work on one of the Apollo projects or with Wernher Von Braun, Edward Teller or Robert Oppenheimer?

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

Really good sources of info on steel can be found by searching for knife making websites. The guys who forge and grind the stuff into knives seem to know their steel. A good start:

http://www.knifeart.com/steelfaqbyjo.html

And there are many more similar.