[Sca-cooks] Cast Iron pots??

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On May 31, 2006, at 6:08 PM, Saint Phlip wrote:

> On 5/31/06, Marcus Loidolt <mjloidolt at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Benedicte,
> cousins and friends all, I have a question...having no clue to the  
> answer, can cast iron be recycled? I have one that has a sizable  
> crack in it...it won't hold water....
> can a metal worker use this for remaking something or just pitch  
> it/ change its use?
>
> Abot Johann
>
> Well, I _can_ be welded, but that doesn't work very well for any  
> object that goes through heating and cooling cycles like a cook pot  
> does, as the welding filler is usually a nickel alloy, and heats  
> and shrinks at a different rate. I have heard of some of the folks  
> doing smelting throwing some cast iron in with the ore for a smelt  
> with some success- in an anaerobic, reducing environment, cast iron  
> will lose much of its carbon and go back to being a ductile version  
> of steel, but there just aren't that many who smelt in SCA. Best  
> bet, if you want to recycle it is to use it as a flower pot holder,  
> if it's arractive enough, or just send it to the scrapyard.  
> Commercial smelters can deal with it, unlike most hobbyists.

I think I vaguely remember something about a process of recasting  
such beasts by making a two-piece mold out of something like clay,  
then going in and "removing" the crack from the mold, and either  
(this is where I'm fuzzy on the process) leaving the iron object in  
place and pouring in more iron, or melting it all together and  
pouring it in to the crackless mold.

I seem to recall this was done with cracked bells and cannons (the  
Liberty Bell comes to mind).

Adamantius



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