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Michael McCarthy's iron smelting furnace, Ashokan 2006

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Michael McCarthy (with help from some friends) spent a great deal of time and effort building an iron smelting furnace, carefully feeding it, and finally breaking it open to reveal the bloom. The entire process literally took all day and well into the night. Below are some pictures of his efforts.

Michael McCarthy. The freshly made furnace. Feeding the fire. McCarthy tending the fire.


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  • Author

The furnace smelting away. Viewing port in the tuyere. Michael feeds the furnace, while Aldo views the bloom through the tuyere window. The view through the tuyere port.


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The hot bloom, fresh out of the furnace. The cooled bloom at Sunday


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Holy shmokes. That is hellacious. When I got some time on my hands, maybe this summer, that's what I want to try. Just learn about it til then.

  • Author

It was at the (25th) annual New England Bladesmiths' Guild seminar at the Ashokan field campus of SUNY (State University of NY). The seminar is always the 3rd weekend in September. You should come next year, a good time is had by all.

Thanks for sharing pictures of the process! Do you have a list of the ingredients?

  • Author

Mike-hr, unfortunately, I did not get the list of ingredients. Sorry.

ApprenticeMan, I got your PM and have responded.

-Chris

And did the band play the farewell?:(

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