Hi AJ, Are you sure you are talking about steel and not wrought iron? Today's steels especially tool steels are far better in strength and workability and are cleaner than steels from earlier ages, and tool steels are certainly cheaper that ever before. Wrought iron or wrought steel is no longer commercially used, but did have its' purposes. However, it was not uncommon due to the way it was made to have major metallurgical defects in it that made it unreliable for critical applications. To say that modern steel is inferior to older steels smacks of urban myth not fact in my opinion. Anyone on the list work at Rolls Royce metallurgical dept that can offer comment? Cheers, Jeff Dayman Waterloo Ontario Canada ----- Original Message ----- From: "alanjstepney" <alan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <modeleng@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, October 15, 2004 11:34 AM Subject: [modeleng] CI, was ] Re: unknown thread > It wears far less. > > Also, steel of an earlier era is much better than that available today. > I understand that the builders of the new loco that Rolls Royce are doing > much of the work on, found that the characteristics of samples of original > steel as used in similar engines, could not be matched by todays steels. > > alan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > www.alanstepney.info > Model Engineering, Steam Engine, and Railway technical pages. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <peter.chadwick@xxxxxxxxxxx> > To: <modeleng@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Sent: Friday, October 15, 2004 4:21 PM > Subject: [modeleng] Re: unknown thread > > > > > Which leads to another question: would a plain cast iron cylinder ( and > for that matter steam chest) suffer relatively little wear because of the > graphite inclusions providing lubrication, or does it wear faster than a > lubricated steel lienr? > > Peter Chadwick (soon to be on a 'plane home!) > > > MODEL ENGINEERING DISCUSSION LIST. > > To UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, send a blank email to, > modeleng-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line. MODEL ENGINEERING DISCUSSION LIST. To UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, send a blank email to, modeleng-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line.