Provided is a method for manufacturing an iron core that enables reduction of variations in dimension of a plurality of metal plates that occur during pressing of the laminate of these metal plates. The method includes: a laminate preparation step of stacking a plurality of metal plates to prepare a laminate; a pressing step of giving a temperature gradient to the laminate and pressing the laminate with a pressing machine having a punch and a die; and a temperature-gradient removal step of removing the temperature gradient from the laminate. The pressing step gives the temperature gradient to the laminate so that the temperature rises from the punch-side to the die-side in the stacking direction of the laminate.