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Are iron beds heavy or light

I am a single mother of two and have been looking for and iron bed to refinish and today I ran across a few at a antique store. I was told that it was an iron bed and I bought it for forty dollars. Later that day several people told me that an Iron bed should be heavy, not light. Well the one that I purchased was light. I know it is not a brass be. So my question is can an iron bed be light also? What will clean the wheels?

Thanks,

Deborah Henson
hobbyist - Athens, Georgia, USA
2004

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The first thing is to check it with a magnet. If it's not magnetic, it's not iron. If it is, it is iron or steel. Steel and iron are roughly the same density, but steel is much stronger, and therefore things can be built with thinner sections of it. Whether steel is the thing as "iron" is a matter of context, but a steel bed doesn't sound particularly antique-y to me.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2004