The detonation spraying was used to manufacture pure iron coatings under a coating deposition mechanism between that of general thermal spray and cold spray. The feedstock powders were heated to the temperatures below melting point and accelerated to the velocities comparable to that of in cold spraying. The results showed the iron coatings had very dense structure, good adhesion quality on the steel substrates, the same phase with the feedstock powders and very low oxygen and carbon-based impurities contents. The EBSD images, specific heat, thermal conductivity, micro-hardness and elastic modulus of the coatings have been detected to understand the structure and properties of the coatings. Explicit dynamic simulations with finite element method have been carried out for the studies on the coating deposition process and mechanism. Based on the above experiment and simulation results, a comprehensive emphasis on this unconventional coating deposition mechanism and the process-structure-property correlation of the iron coatings have been put forward.