marmotslayer said:
It ain't iron. Wrought iron is simply iron that was purified by the old method of pounding it when white to red hot. When the Bessemer method came into use, wrought iron went away and the chance of finding it in a recycling yard is almost nil. If you want wrought iron you will need to find something that was made before about 1850. The old forged barrels were made of wrought iron skelps and are true wrought iron. The lack of carbon in wrought iron was one of the reasons those barrels did not rust like our modern ones. A lot of people mistake the term "wrought" for a process of forgin steel into various objects. Lots of those same people think they just had a "wrought iron" fence installed but it's a steel fence.
As far as cookware is concerned, you should give Lodge a call and ask them what their iron cookware is made of.
Wrought iron is simply pig iron that has been heated to the point where the carbon it contains is burned away in a puddling furnace, leaving a pasty mass that is then hammered (wrought) or rolled into bars. This iron contains from .02 to .50 % of carbon compared to 2.50 to 4.50% in cast iron. You probably won't find it in a recycling yard unless someone brought some in from a demolition job at an old building. I have found a few pieces at an antique dealer or two.
You don't have to go back before 1850 to find items made of wrought iron. It was still available and used in this country as late as after World War I. Iron from Norway and Sweden had a great reputation for its quality and at least until recently, Swedish iron was still imported to the US though in small quantities and at a high price. Another smith that I used to converse with told me that he had obtained a small amount.
As for barrels, all of the arms made in the National Armories as well as those under contract had wrought iron barrels. The exceptions would be possibly some patent arms and if I remember right at least a portion of the Hall breechloading rifles had steel barrels. I'll have to search that out in my records. Only the ramrods and the blades of the bayonets were steel, along with internal lock parts and springs. It was at least as late as 1868 before barrels on US rifles were made of steel on a large scale.
"Wrought Iron" is a mis-used term in modern times. Most people don't understand what that means and only associate it with items made by the blacksmith at his forge. But, in most cases, it is the easiest way for people to describe the smith's work, so I don't try to correct them. Actually, much of the ornamental ironwork available today is made of cast iron and even aluminum manufactured to "look" like forged wrought iron. And many smiths use these pieces in conjunction with forged steel.
If you are in doubt whether your skillet is iron or not, stick a magnet to it. If it doesn't stick, well, it ain't iron brother.
