I'm not a metalurgist either but I know a bit about real wrought iron.

Wrought iron doesn't rust as badly as steel because of the silicate
slag that it contains. This helps it resist rusting. Carbon content
has little to do with it.

As far as I know wrought iron may have been made in the U.S. into the
1950's but not in large quantities. It's one of those technologies
that disapeared quickly after WWII.

In the U.K. there is a company called "The Real Wrought Iron Company"
there is good information on their website.

http://www.realwroughtiron.com/wiac.asp

Cheers,

Kelley

On Fri, 21 Oct 2005 11:57:00 -0400, "Bob Chilcoat"
wrote:

AFAIK, the closest we have anymore is mild steel, which still has a
significant carbon content. I believe that wrought iron is almost pure
iron. I suppose you could purge the carbon from mild steel by reheating it
in an oxygen environment (make a miniature Bessemer furnace?), but I'm no
metalurgist.