Iron Hardware?

[kmeyer]

I spent some time visiting the various well known supply companies looking for "iron hardware". Only seeing brass and steel, I placed a call to Jack Garner. They only carry brass and steel as well. He said when people refer to iron hardware on a gun that is really browned steel. Anyone here able to shed more on this? Thanks.

 

[LRB]

I'm afraid that is going to be the case. These castings are of a mild steel. Pure iron is almost non existant in todays world. These steel castings will serve your purpose for 99% of your needs.

 

[kmeyer]

Thanks Wick. Anyone have any pics of browned hardware? I am wondering now if I would be better of browning steel or brass? I kinda wanted a old antique dark look. I will probably give this one a dark brown or dark reddish stain.

 

[Stumpkiller]

There are smiths who forge the components from iron.

Johhn Donelson might be willing to forge butt-plate, side-plate, guard, entrypipe and thimbles depending on his workload. He likes "little" forging projects to fill his contemplative down time.

You might need to do A BUNCH of filework to get them slimmed down and fully formed to shape.

Contact[url] www.donelsoncustomguns.com[/url]

 

[DrTimboone]

I bought hand forged steel/iron butt plate and trigger guard from Curt Lyles. He did them to my spec and sent them rough. I did the filing and shaping. Not too hard.

[url] http://www.cdlyles.com[/url] :thumbsup:

 

[LRB]

Stump, I believe that you will find that he is using a mild steel, unless he is forging from bog iron. I could be wrong, but pure iron is not easy to find. The finished product would be difficult to distinguish whether it was iron or steel. Pure iron has little use in todays world. It is too soft and has little structural strength. As far as I know, even "pure" iron most often has a trace of carbon in it. If you know of a source of iron, I would be interested. Cast iron has upwards of two to three percent carbon, which is what makes it so brittle, and unworkable.

 

[kmeyer]

Has anyone tried blueing steel hardware? I don't mean a barrel, but cast steel trigger guard and or buttplate? How about browning brass? I'd like to see how this looks. Thanks.

 

[DrTimboone]

See the pictures at[url] www.hcdllp.com[/url] on my gun page and sideplate page. Blued with 44/40 cold blue. Easy to use!

 

[kmeyer]

Dr, that looks great. Just to confim the hardware is blued steel and then bleached to give it that look. Correct? I love that look.

 

[Mike Brooks]

Here's an Iron mounted gun with the metal finish I think you're looking for.
>>>>POKE HERE>POKE AGAIN

 

[DrTimboone]

Yep, I blued it with the 44/40 and wiped it down. Then sprayed bleach on it and let it sit a while, then wiped and scotch gard scratchy padded it lightly and finished with a good coat of oil. Leave it a little darker than you want it before the oil cause when you oil and rub it with a soft cloth some final color will come off and lighten it a bit.

Tim

 

[kmeyer]

It's amazing the diffent looks you can get when trying to give a antique finish. Thanks for all the input guys.

 

[benvenuto]

Stump, I believe that you will find that he is using a mild steel, unless he is forging from bog iron. I could be wrong, but pure iron is not easy to find. The finished product would be difficult to distinguish whether it was iron or steel. Pure iron has little use in todays world. It is too soft and has little structural strength. As far as I know, even "pure" iron most often has a trace of carbon in it. If you know of a source of iron, I would be interested. Cast iron has upwards of two to three percent carbon, which is what makes it so brittle, and unworkable.

Real wrought iron turns up as scrap sometimes...

Mainly tire rims off wagons but if you get lucky you could get some iron RR track or structural beams.

There is only one supplier in the world that I know of that supplies wrought iron off the rack
The Real Wrought Iron Co

I also believe transformer plates are 96% iron 4% silicon, might prove interesting to forge but unlike the old wrought iron the sicon is homogenous, not in fibres running through the metal.

As a last resort, if you live near a steelworks that uses sintered iron ore pellets as raw material, my teacher has been experimenting with heating thease to welding heat and then belting them with his power hammer. After about 4 cycles of folding and welding it looks quite good...

 

[flintriflesmith]

If you live in the part of the country where bridges built across small rivers in the 1900-1930 period were iron (the ones with an iron frame above that look like what a kid would build with a erector set), they are often a good source of wrought iron. The "I beams" are too big to mess with but the smaller plates and long tensioning rods are usually pretty good quality wrought iron. A contractor from Texas who made his living replacing the old bridges with stressed concrete offered mae all the wrought iron I could ever use for scrap price and shipping.

On the other hand, most wagon tire iron is the absolute worst quality. Very course grained and, if it has a lot of sulfer in it, it can crumble when forged even at a bright red.

 

[benvenuto]

Ah yes, I have seen some bad stuff out there... tried to forge it and it split wide open along a seam...
As far as gun mounts go, 1004 and 1008 grade steel is a good modern equivilent to wrought iron as far as softness and ease of forging goes. They use it for cold forming all sorts of things, and in nails. Hard to source in small amounts but just a thought...

 

[Stumpkiller]

Stump, I believe that you will find that he is using a mild steel, unless he is forging from bog iron. I could be wrong, but pure iron is not easy to find. The finished product would be difficult to distinguish whether it was iron or steel. Pure iron has little use in todays world. It is too soft and has little structural strength. As far as I know, even "pure" iron most often has a trace of carbon in it. If you know of a source of iron, I would be interested. Cast iron has upwards of two to three percent carbon, which is what makes it so brittle, and unworkable.

Not sure about the buttplate and triggerbow. I know he's not forging from bog iron or smelting his own. There's a smith here in NY that makes swords with bog iron he collects himself in the Adirondacks and his work will set you back five figures. John "recycles" old scrap farm iron and soft steel. I have a knife he knocked out of an old plow coulter that "rings" when struck. The entry pipe and thimbles were from 100+ year old barn/silo straps.

 

[flintlock54]

Is this the finish you are looking for?

 

[dwarvenchef]

Very nice links there. I'm going to have to work on my finnishing a bit I can tell, those looked great.