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Historic Cast Iron Tools

Cast iron, one of several types of iron, contains more carbon than other irons. The carbon makes the molten iron more fluid, and thus easier to mold--or cast--into shapes, such as skillets, pots or tools. The use of iron in tools, for over 2,000 years, demonstrates the power and desirability of iron; cast iron itself is a relatively newcomer, used for about the last 200 years.

Whaling Tools
- The Nantucket Whaling Museum displays tools from a bygone era, when ships sailed the oceans pursuing and hunting whales. Cast iron, with its ability to be molded into shapes and relatively inexpensive cost, provided the metal for a tool known as the whaling shoulder gun, a device that fired a harpoon. Prior to the shoulder gun, a person had to throw the harpoon toward the whale, so this historic tool changed life on a whaling vessel.
Irons
- The Fort Scott National Historic Site in Kansas displays artifacts from the history of the fort in the 1800s. One such display involves the fort's laundry, with the "tools of the trade" used by the laundress highlighted. There were two types of irons, flat and box, both made of cast iron. The box iron was hollow so coals could be placed inside, while the flat iron, being solid, was heated through coals underneath the iron.
Andirons
- Andirons, used to hold logs in place in a fireplace, demonstrate the continuing evolution of metal working: from forged iron in the days of the American colonies, to brass, and then to the favored cast iron, beginning during the Industrial Revolution. Manufactured in the 1800s in large and varied styles, andirons remain today as antiques and reminders of the Victorian era.

Nature