The name the trade still uses for decorative metalwork — gates, railings, balustrades, fences and the scrolls, collars, rosettes and spear points they are assembled from. True wrought iron, a fibrous low-carbon iron with slag threads, is no longer made commercially; today's 'wrought iron' components are hot-forged or cold-formed mild steel.
Wrought iron in its original sense was made by puddling: pig iron was stirred in a furnace until most of its carbon burned out, leaving a pasty mass of almost pure iron mixed with slag that was hammered and rolled into bars. The slag left fine threads through the metal, which made it fibrous, tough, easy to forge and weld in a blacksmith's fire, and resistant to rusting through. It was the structural and decorative metal of the 19th century — the Eiffel Tower is wrought iron — until cheap mild steel from Bessemer and open-hearth converters replaced it. Commercial production had ended by the late 20th century; genuine wrought iron today is reclaimed from old bridges and buildings for restoration work.
What is sold as wrought iron now is ornamental ironwork in mild steel. Components are hot-forged, pressed, rolled or cold-bent from square, round and flat bar: C- and S-scrolls, twisted and basket balusters, collars, cast or pressed leaves and rosettes, spear and ball finials, and hammered or textured bar that imitates hand forging. Fabricators weld or collar them into gates, fences, railings and grilles.
Because mild steel rusts readily, finishing is part of the product. Good practice is hot-dip galvanizing after fabrication followed by a paint or powder coat (a duplex system), or at least blast cleaning and a zinc-rich primer. In the Gulf's coastal, humid and saline climate an untreated or primer-only gate shows rust within a season.
Ornamental gates, railings and balcony balustrades are a large market in GCC villas and compounds, served by local fabrication workshops that assemble imported components — mainly from China, India and Turkey — with locally bought mild-steel bar and tube.
There is no current standard for wrought iron as a material; ornamental work is built from structural mild steel and finished to the general standards below.
| Region | Standard | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Europe | EN 10025-2 CEN-CENELEC |
Hot-rolled non-alloy structural steels — S235 and S275 bar used for ornamental work |
| USA | ASTM A36/A36M ASTM |
Carbon structural steel |
| Europe | EN 1090-2 CEN-CENELEC |
Execution of steel structures — technical requirements, applied to load-bearing railings and balustrades |
| International | ISO 1461 ISO |
Hot-dip galvanized coatings on fabricated iron and steel articles |
| USA | ASTM A123/A123M ASTM |
Zinc (hot-dip galvanized) coatings on iron and steel products |
| International | ISO 12944 ISO |
Corrosion protection of steel structures by protective paint systems |
Grade equivalents and the standards bodies: Steel grades & standards
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