Friend of mine is a florist. They've been cutting soft iron florist's wire with the same pair of old CK diagonals for as long as I've known them.
I don't know what "ordinary" iron wire is, because iron florist's wire is getting to be quite specialised these days. Did you mean steel?
Is there such a thing as high tensile iron? Or is it steel?
I have on many occasions. Its not the worst thing at all. Cuts like bitter.
High tensile steel bolts and piano wire is quite another matter.
Of course this is assuming high carbon steel side-cutters... not some B & Q special made in India out of recycled mango pips.
if its hard its steel. No matter what its CALLED.
I suspect that mots 'iron' wire is simply very poor grade steel of some sort.
Cast iron is very hiogh carbon, very hard, very brittle. As carbon content comes down it gets more ductile and less brittle, and eventually pure iron - which is very very expensive at any standard of purity at all, - is surprisingly soft AFAICR.
Agricultural 'iron' wire that I have used has merely been soft steel of poor quality.
In some circles, its called "wood"
Raw cast iron probably would be if it wasn't for the carbon irregularities in it which makes it break easily in tension.
Cast iron is hard, due to high carbon content, but don't try to use it in tension!
The reason the beam snapped was that the pumps were lift pumps, and a column of water was hanging on each end of the beam, putting the top of the beam in tension. Modifications were done afterwards to similar installations. Another outcome was that two shafts (or drifts ) have since been stipulated in law.
but cast iron isn't pure iron.
Its absurdly high carbon steel :-)
The nearest thing you find to iron is in magnetic circuits. But even those are alloys of one sort or another
Pure iron is softer than aluminium.
At school in the (very) late 50s "Archie" Campbell had us believe that "tinplate" was "tinned sheet iron".
Most proper conventional pliers have provision for shearing hard wires next to the fulcrum 'joint'. There are also some 'wire cutters' with a double nipping action and harder jaws especially for such as piano wire.
a lot of us have used the mango pip type, and with those cutting soft iron wire soon ruins them
NT
a lot of pliers arent that good quality and dont survive it. Its sold as soft iron wire, I dont really know more than that.
NT
No you idiot, it's lumps of iron sitting next to lumps of carbon. Neither is alloyed.
I'm near Newport and Pontypool. Two towns that became rich on sheet iron, first japanned with Pontypool japan (an asphalt lacquer) and then learning how to tin it, with or without the lacquer. This tinplate was made of iron for a very long time before it became a cheap ductile steel.
Although not quite the 50s, unless you're a century older than you appear.
Probably, but florist's is iron. If it isn't, you can feel the difference. The substitute for florist's iron wire isn't steel, it's aluminium and even then it has to be annealed after drawing.
Why do you think cast iron is hard? Chilled cast iron skin can be, but most isn't.
Pure iron's only a little expensive because there's so little call for it. If you buy it from real suppliers (it still has plenty of uses), then it's not that expensive. It's certainly cheaper than the magnetically soft iron alloys (with high silicon, sometimes with amorphous metallurgy) used for magnetic work.
who mentioned alloyed?
Steel is an alloy between the carbon and the iron (i.e. whatever it's crystals of, they're a combination of the two).
Cast iron is grains of iron, with the carbon free between them and unalloyed.
In general, bulk cast iron has more carbon than a high carbon steel, but the iron grains are still pure iron.
How odd that none of the carbon makes it into the iron :-)
Think again.
Pure iron is uber soft and ductile. Cast iron is anything but.
At the risk of furthering this dispute... traditionally, cast ?? plough shares were left out to weather *because they last/wear longer*.
regards
Look up cast iron on Wiki.
It basically gives you the correct information.
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