Cast Iron: Why It's So Blooming Fantastic!

As you can tell from the title, I absolutely love cast iron. I use it wherever it’s appropriate, e.g. I have frying pans (you might call it a skillet if you’re American) and radiators made from cast iron.

I am a cast iron aficionado, and if you care to read on, you’ll find out why, because here, I’m going to sing the praises of what I think is one of the greatest discoveries made by man – it played a huge role in the industrial revolution where we used it for making engine cylinders in our first steam trains.

How do we make cast iron?
Cast iron is a mix of three different elements. Clearly, it has iron in it, but it also has carbon and silicon (-silicon is another fantastic discovery). It is 95% iron, and the rest of the 5% is shared between carbon and silicon in various degrees, depending on the manufacture and the purpose of the metal.

What makes it so awesome?
Well, there are a few things that make it amazing, so let’s have a look:

1.    It’s mostly made from iron, and that means that it is relatively cheap to produce. Nowadays, it’s more expensive than steel (for now, the steel mills are closing) and aluminium, but in the past it was super cheap in comparison to other metals.

2.    There is very little wastage, because it doesn’t have to be too pure, manufactures can just collect run off and waste, and melt it down again.

3.    It’s very machinable, which means that you can put it to many different uses. For instance,you can use if for things as diverse as cast iron radiators or engine cylinders. That creates a lot of flexibility in its use.

4.    It’s very strong. It can last a long time. For instance, some of the cast iron radiators from the pre-Victorian era remain in good condition today. It’s also a little weird, because while it’s strong, it can be brittle too, which seems counter intuitive, but it’s all about the different ways it’s used. If you drop it, it shatters, but if you kick it, you can shatter your foot. Very odd, but I’m sure a structural engineer could explain it all a bit better.

Is it all the same?
Surprisingly, no it isn't. There are two key types of cast iron: white and grey. They both have different uses, but the one with which we’re mostly familiar, and which you use as your frying pan, is the grey cast iron.

What do we use it for?
Well, we’ve already told you that we use it for frying pans, radiators, and engines, but it has other uses too. This includes all manner of cook wear, e.g. pots and pans, old bridges (we don’t do this anymore, because there are safer alternatives), pipes (again, we don’t use it as much now, but back in the day we did, and it was much better than lead!), and various types of furniture, which can be very expensive.

If you would like to view a collection of radiators made of cast iron, then please visit our website.