October 22, 200916 yr I've been hanging around here for a while, soaking up this vast amount of information and experience which I thank all of you for sharing. But now im at a sticking point in a project im doing for a history fair, of course it deals with the early history of knives, tools , iron and steel but by what i've learned, sommething called the Catalan Furnace was used to transform cast iron to wrought iron.problem is, I cant find a picture or diagram for my backboard. any sketches, drawings, or help at all would be greatly appreciated thanks kyle
October 22, 200916 yr I googled, Catalan Furnace, this was the first of 60,000 hits. Metalworking Furnaces - San Juan Capistrano, California - Engineering Landmarks on Waymarking.com
October 22, 200916 yr Catalan Furnace predated the indirect process of making wrought iron from cast iron. It was a direct process smelter making wrought iron from ore. (The secondary process is over 1000 years "later" than the early direct process methods ..) I've seen good line drawings of it in old ASM books on the history of metals and Colonial Williamsburg built one and had it written up in the magazine on trades with pictures. You need to do more research! May I commend to your attention "The Metallography of Early Ferrous Edge Tools and Edged Weapons" Tylcote and Gilmour (a British Archeological Report) Hard to buy easy to ILL! I'll try to dig up the cites on the works mentioned but it may be next week before I can post them as I have a trip to Mexico this Saturday.
October 23, 200916 yr In Tiemann's "Iron and Steel," he talks about the Catalan Forge being an open hearth type, a direct process of making a forgable bloom of about 300 pounds in 3 hours. Perhaps the precorsor of the indirect process (cast iron to wrought iron) was the st
October 27, 200916 yr Finally had time to dig in my library: "The Story of Metals", John W. W. Sullivan, American Society for Metals; has a reprint of the Catalan Forge drawing from "Steel and Iron", W.H.Greenwood pub 1884 Colonial Williamsburg Historic Trades Annual, vol 1, "Reconstructing the American Bloomery Process", David Harvey
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