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Picked up a 200 year old wrought iron latch at an estate sale in Lancaster PA last month
Got curious about the composition so I did a quick spark test in the garage. Turns out the iron had almost no carbon in it, less than 0.1% which makes sense for pre-Bessemer process stuff. The guy selling it said it was handmade in the 1820s by a local smith. Has anyone else tested old hardware to see how the metal holds up compared to modern steel?
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brookebailey19d ago
My grandfather would have smacked me with that latch for even thinking about spark testing it, lol. @abby_kim55, I totally get the concern, but it cleaned up fine and I only hit it with a tiny grinding wheel. The 1820s wrought iron actually sparked way less than the cheap modern steel hook I tested it against, barely any shower at all. It was cool seeing how the old smith hammered out the carbon so evenly compared to the random junk you find at big box stores now.
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