Shingling is the mechanical process of taking a spongy, white-hot puddle ball from the puddling furnace and working it under a heavy drop hammer or through a squeezer. The heavy impacts force out the molten silicates and weld the iron particles into a solid, rectangular bloom. This step is essential for producing the fibrous grain structure characteristic of wrought iron.
Pull that ball out of the furnace and shingle it quickly before the cinder freezes inside the matrix.
Also heard as
- nobble
Related terms
Puddle ball
A spongy mass of hot wrought iron gathered from a puddling furnace.
Puddling
A historic process of converting pig iron into wrought iron by stirring it in a reverberatory furnace.
Crocodile squeezer
A historic jawed machine used to squeeze liquid slag out of a hot puddle ball and consolidate the iron.
Drop hammer
A heavy forging machine that shapes hot metal by dropping a massive weight onto a die.