Corporation

The hammered iron ring

There is a traditional belief that the iron rings were originally fabricated from a section of the Québec Bridge that collapsed in 1907 and 1916. This is false. No ring has come from that metal and the ring does not reflect any defect in that work. In any event, the beams were made of steel of a type which does not lend itself to hammering.

The rings have always come from commercial sources, originally made from hammered steel and, eventually, from hammered stainless steel. The use of iron stresses the importance of that material in the engineering profession, a material that Kipling exalts in his works. The initial rings, until 1940, were hand hammered by veterans of the 1914 Great War in a veterans’ hospital in Toronto.

Since 1925, The Authors’ Rights protect the ritual and the Trade Mark law protects the Iron Ring, symbol of the ritual, including the use of its picture.