This branch of metal working includes a great variety of manufacturing industries which shape metals for final uses. In general, the re-manufacture of metals includes all processes which start with rolling-mill products, such as plates, bars, rods, etc., and turn out an endless variety of metal articles which enter into almost every range of service. Possibly the most familiar branch of metal re-manufacturing is that in the shop of the village blacksmith. The blacksmith shapes, by manual labor, many articles from bars, rods and sheets of metal which are supplied by the rolling mill.

By far the greater part of re-manufacturing is carried on in large workshops and factories in which the main part of the work is done by machines operated by persons of more or less skill. A single manufacturing establishment may be employed wholly in making one kind of article, wire for example, or its range may be extended to making articles closely associated, as rivets, bolts and nuts, or automobile forgings.

Only a few of the re-manufacturing industries can be given particular mention here, and those outlined in this chapter are selected either to give information of metal-shaping methods which produce well-known articles, or to show the possibilities of metal Working.

A great many metal articles familiarly seen are products of the foundry, where pigs of metal are melted and cast into shape. Foundry products are not usually classed as products of re-manufacture, and will be dealt with later on. They can usually be readily recognized by their more or less irregular form. Superficial inspection will generally show that they are not made from shapes supplied by the rolling mill.