BlackSteve

Thanks! The responses here already look like good leads for making connections. As for ancestors not doing it, that's actually the point... nobody in the eastern U.S. did metallurgy at all, even as a group, before Europeans arrived (and there's only a handful of possible examples in the Pacific Northwest which are inconclusive). That puts this continent at least 5,800 years behind Asia/Europe/Africa, which is GREAT fodder for changing the subject when someone asks me "so why again were you burning rocks all weekend?" I will definitely look into ABBG!! As for charcoal, I watched some videos o

Answering one of my own questions, this article seems to have some good resources for bloomery construction, especially the bits about the tuyeres: http://iron.wlu.edu/reports/Eindhoven Smelt Report.htm

Hello all! Very excited to have found this website I recently purchased my first home, in the Atlanta suburbs with an acre of woods sloping down to a stream out back, and immediately started fantasizing about what I could do with my first bit of land. Fast forward a few months, and I've cleared and leveled a spot where I'm telling friends I want to build a little bloomery and smelt some local ore. Why? I don't need a reason. But for the sake of the missus and other people who don't "get it", I'm saying that I want to demonstrate that it's possible, using only implements available to pre-1492