Art of making iron beds

The antique art of wrought iron furniture design remains popular to this day.

You can find almost anything created from wrought iron, including large items such as beds, tables, chairs, and patio furniture, and small items including shelf brackets, towel bars, hat and coat racks, pot racks, and fireplace accents. Wrought iron pieces can improve the look of every room in your home.

When it comes to wrought iron beds, you can find a wide selection of products available, including European and American reproductions, children’s items such as cribs, cradles, and beds, daybeds, and designs that are both modern and custom.

Much of the antique cast iron furniture was produced back in the 1700s and 1800s and there are companies around today that specialize in repairing these items. One common procedure is to transform the smaller beds of the past into the queen and king sizes most popular today. These beds are usually very elegant and stylish, with many featuring a canopy which can use fabric specifically chosen to compliment the design of the entire room.

What is “wrought iron”? The term “wrought” actually comes from the past tense of the verb to work. These days we more commonly used the term “worked” as opposed to “wrought”. Making these iron products is actually a fairly complicated process. Some of the ornamental metal work that is produced these days is produced using milled steel, which is much lighter weight than iron.

When we are speaking of genuine wrought iron we are refereeing to a special type of commercial iron which has low carbon content. This material is easy to weld, flexible, and tough. This material rusts easily and is not a good choice for the construction of knifes or swords as it is too soft. The strongest weapon makers in olden times where those who discovered how to carbonize iron and combine it with other metals to create steel, which will hold up much better during warfare. Throughout history the term “iron” has been used to refer to what we are calling “wrought iron”.

Some of the earliest evidence of iron smelting comes from China around 3000 BC. A method called bloomery was originally used to produce wrought iron. Iron ore (iron oxide or rusted iron) would be placed into charcoal smelters, most often ladles or pots, and covered with a layer of charcoal by a bloomerie. The oar would partially melt as the charcoal was lit and bellows were used to blow air onto the charcoal. This process would release the oxygen atom from the iron and they would then bind with the charcoal, resulting in carbon dioxide which bubbled away. This would result in iron with very little carbon.

In this process the fire is kept low enough so the iron will not completely melt. The result is a spongy mound which includes iron and silicates from the ore which is called a bloom. The iron is then worked, “wrought,” by hammering twisting, and folding to remove slag and impurities. While this metal does not contain sufficient carbon for heat tempering, the hammering of the wrought iron does compact the materials fibers and help to strengthen the product. The strengthening process mixes several thin layers of slag into the metal, resulting in a grain that can be seen if the metal is bent or broken. Many old rusted pieces of wrought iron are reddish brown and actually resemble wood.

The process of producing iron for iron beds
In Europe between 1100 and 1300 blast furnaces were introduced which greatly improved this process. Pig iron, which is a brittle substance with high carbon content, was produced in these furnaces. Various oxides had been discovered by the 1750s which allowed much of the carbon to be removed as carbon dioxide, a process similar to that of early bloomery.

The Art Of Making Iron Beds