[Sca-cooks] Cast Iron pots??

[Lisa]

Never having smelted I cannot comment on the smelting process, but I can
state that while growing up my dad was given  HUGE cast iron pot with a very
large crack in it.  After multiple unsuccessful attempts to weld it, he
managed to partially do so, and then chose to use it as a hanging flower pot
with a homemade heavy metal hanger.  It was welded enough to keep the dirt
in, but the cracks that he was unable to weld allowed excess water to drain
off.  We had great success with most of the plants we grew in this pot, and
my last planting in it was oregano and thyme, although the last time I saw
it the oregano was still quite productive, it had choked out the thyme.

Elizabeta of Rundel

----- Original Message -----
From: "Saint Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2006 5:08 PM
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Cast Iron pots??


> 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.
>
> --
> Saint Phlip
>
> Don't like getting old? Beats the Hel out of the alternative.
>
> The purpose of life is not to arrive at the grave, a beautiful corpse,
> pretty and well-preserved, but to slide in sideways, thoroughly used up,
> totally worn out, proclaiming, "Wow! What a ride!"
>


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