MattMaier Posted June 7, 2014 Share Posted June 7, 2014 I have been interested in bloomeries for smelting my own wrought iron for a while now and I have a question. Is it possible to charge a bloomery with pieces of cast iron scrap and have wrought iron as the end result? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 I believe what you'd get is a cupola melter, not a bloomery. They look a lot alike and even work alike but you feed them differently and the result is different. Melting wrought iron and cast iron together in a cupola on the other hand is likely to give you grades of steel, just not in a consistent piece. If you LIKE excitement however you could do a home brew BOP and maybe get pure iron. Just learn about Basic Oxygen Process first, "exciting" wasn't a turn of phrase. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 Look up puddling as a way to convert cast iron to wrought. Kelly did his experiments (prior to Bessemer) in refractory lined barrels so it is possible to run the bessemer process in small scale---however EXOTHERMIC is just a charming understatement... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
basher Posted June 9, 2014 Share Posted June 9, 2014 Post blast furnace a lot of cast iron was refined into wrought steel in a finery . But I only know of very few modern smelters who do this (in-fact only one comes to mind) But as Thomas mentioned above puddling would be the way to go. I do not believe that small scale puddling would be that complicated a task and it is defiantly on my list of things to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted June 9, 2014 Share Posted June 9, 2014 Iron ore can be sourced fairly cheaply in many areas as magnetite is sold as a pollution control agent. As I recall my friend who bought the 400# minimal order paid more for shipping than the 100 mesh magnetite itself. Also the "black sand" of gold panners on the west coast is magnetite---a high grade iron ore and the iron sand the japanese use in their tataras. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattMaier Posted June 10, 2014 Author Share Posted June 10, 2014 I actually found a place online that sells powdered magnetite in bulk. Once I get a bloomery built I am thinking of using that to do a smelt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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