forgenorth

for some reason the pics didn't upload I'll trya again tomorrow.

A couple of days ago I made the foot pedal and I like it better then the hand lever, heres how it's set up. I drove 2 oak boards from a pallet a foot in the ground with a hole drilled in it the lever also has a hole in it but the lever seemed too weak so I put some 1x3 on the sides to add mass.I then slid a pipe into the hole in the lever to prevent the wood from wearing through. Theres a peice of rebar that goes through all the holes.

In regards to tools, I only have and use about a third of the tools I see there so I'd say you have a well stocked shop even if it is a little small. Thats a cool hammer rack idea I like it.

@ ciladog I make my own charcoal and will build a furnace once I confirm i have ore. Are you one of the guys who was in ore to axe your setup looks very similar. @ Thomas Powers there bellows is about half the size of mine by the looks of it. I also have a shop vac that going to modify as a backup. @Chuck in ms That sounds epic! If he used 45 lbs of ore then I probably have enough ore right now to smelt.I think the most time consuming part is going to be producing enough charcoal mostly because I can only make 15 -20 gallons at a time. My brother is going to bring a sample to a geology professor at his school soon so I can confirm it. Thanks guys

Thomas Powers Ergonomics are deffinitely important to me, my brother is going to school to be a PT and hes helped me design things more efficiently for the human body. We think the foot pedal is the more natural choice what do you think? They seem popular in Europe like on those round Alldays and Onions (I think it's pronounced o'neyuns I read). It seems to me that Europe Asia and Africa all have more ergonomic working conditions. thanks

The bellows is 4 feet long and 2 feet at its widest point. I have a couple freinds who can help, how many would be needed?

Also would a double chamber bellows be enough air for a smelt?

@Doc I like the link I'm going to look through all the links in detail now. Are you by any chance from upstate NY? @nobodyspecial I was kind of thinking that it would help make it brittle, I saw somewhere that people used to put flint in fires to make it easier to knapp for certain applications. @Thomas Powers I think the ore i have has some sulfur because when I've crushed it up it has a very faint sulfur smell. I figured it would make sense that there's a source of ore near the furnace so they would have to haul it very far. Did that powdery oreget blown out at all? Thanks allot guys

I have used a pulley for the bellows before for other reasons and it seemed like there was always too much give in the line and friction in the pulleys. I used the same layout as shown in the book how to make a blacksmith bellows ( I forget the authors name but its a red paperback with black border and a bellows on the cover) and I guess he never tried the layout of the pulleys in the book because it didnt work. I used hemp rope and pulleys from home depot maybe with better materials it might work? I'd still rather use the foot pedal or top lever because I already have the materials.

I have built a double chamber great bellows and I am now making a shake roof over it. My problem now is that the roof has to be at a certain height and in the current configuration of the bellows the lever will hit the roof. My option now is either to lower the bellows to allow for the lever to clear or, rig the lever to a foot operation instead. I see pros and cons about each such as: with the foot pedal, you can use both your hands but you may fatigue quicker standing on one foot. If I go with the lower bellows the lever will also be lower, about chest height which seems like it would be awkward to operate. Let me know what you guys think or any experiences you have thanks in advance.

@ThomasPowers if it is ore, I would still crush it, this was just the inside of a big chunk.I always heard you should roast it any way to drive out moisture and sulfur is that true? Someone said that if the ore is too fine it can get blown around by the convection, is that true?Are there any kind of land forms to look for when looking for ore? I think I'm going to see if I can find a coppy of that book. I know that it doesnt take much iron to make it rust but I don't have a way to test how much is inside.It seems pretty uniformly rusty the whole way through though.I like the idea of going to a college geologist, is iron ore something comon enough that they could ID it? @Nobodyspecial why should you roast the ore and then quench it? I like the link it has good info. In regards to magnetism, the stonger the pull, the higher iron content right? What would a bloom look like on the inside? Thanks

@bentiron1946 I was thinking about trying that but my forge is temporarily out of service because I'm building a new bellows and going from side blast to bottom blast forge. @Jammer both of these were found near the York Lancaster border in PA. I brought about 40 lbs of the ore back with me, I think that should be enough for a small scale smelt. What do you guys think? Also thank you for the links, Ive seen the wiki page but not the other until now, it's been difficult to find information on real iron ore and smelting. When i look up "iron ore" or "smelting iron" I get results for world of warcraft and the like. So far, the best resource has been the dvd ore to axe and wareham forge.

I have found what I think might be (hopefully) some smeltable iron ore. The first 2 pictures are the same piece but different sides, I found these near a stream, within a mile of a pig iron furnace so maybe this is what they used? The next 3 pictures were found around the foundation of the furnace previously stated. I believe these may be either slag or blooms, because they have anthricite inclusions and a white powder which could be limestone used as a flux I've heard. I read somewhere that they would put anthricite on the top layer of iron in the crucible, so the anthicite would oxidize before the iron. Is that where the anthricite came from? Also the peices in the last 3 pictures all hold a magnet very well.If anyone can confirm or deny any of this it would be greatly appreciated.