Cast iron science?

Mike_S

New member
I was wondering if there has been any work or research done into scientific cast iron identification. Might sound goofy but I would imagine that there would be some differences of quality and consistency of metals used to make CI through the years and in China/UK/Mexico/US. This may be as simple as testing the electrical conductivity of the CI or a non-damaging chemical reaction test (if it has x element the liquid will turn blue and therefore it is from China circa 1970s).

It's a shot in the dark at a very small target, but I figured that it's better for a newbie to ask rather than spend time thinking about something ridiculous.
 
As with any mined ore, there would be impurities that one may or may not be able to tie to a particular region or era. Then you would have to consider what would happen to those impurities once the iron is smelted out. You would also have to consider that the extracted iron is not used "as-is" but other things such as carbon, silicon, sulfur, manganese are added to achieve desired properties, thus introducing another variable to the composition. At best, you might be able to test for the presence of something in order to exclude where the piece may have come from, or for the presence of a particular substance not likely to be found naturally, but more likely because recycled iron was used in the manufacture. Not sure you could do any of that without doing something that would affect collectible value, though.
 
Back
Top