Time to waste If you do facebook join "iron smelters of the world" group there sometimes there are smelts happening every day.

Lee Sauder has a great essaying method for simply  ascertaining the quantaties of iron in an ore in small quantities look him up , loads of great info on his website. I thought Ric Furrer was selling ore , at least he was at one time.

Smelting with ore you have found yourself is a wonderful thing to do but using a known ore makes life a lot simpler.

I have had great luck smelting magnatite, using a commercial grade ore and over twenty smelts with it before going out and hunting my local ore which is siderite.

There is nothing like making iron or steel from ore you have dug out of the ground , its quite a thing to do.

Are you roasting the siderite?

Thanks for the Facebook link, lots of ore, Smiths and woods around here , someone has to be into it close by.

Lee Sauder is a great resource, I will research his ore quality testing methods. I'm going to call the mine rep and try to buy direct from the mine, they'd know its quality right?(3+hour drive)but will also check out Ric Furrer(drive to mailbox). Magnetite is what I've got to work with now but would like to have other ores to "experiment" with. Limonite mines not too far away(3+hour drive in different direction). Bog iron all over(theoretically).

Ore is one thing,... furnace construction, operation, chemistry, its still a long haul, lots to learn. Thanks again.

A question about roasting if I may? 

Should I roast magnetite to make it easier to pulverize, after screening out fines I'm left with a fair percentage of unsuitably large very magnetic pieces, they are harder than diamonds.

I have a wood stove and a heavy cast iron pot, if it doesn't hurt the ore(and serves a purpose) it'd be as easy as putting the three together and providing forced air to reach roasting temps...

Roasting was usually used to oxidize sulfur containing ores and to break up larger massive ores.  I don't know if magnetite would subdivide; I always got mine as sand or dust.

I have roasted the siderite for most of the smelts I have done, helps to break down the rock and prevents the inevitable explosions from damaging the furnace. The last smelt i did was with heavily weathered siderite crusts (limonite I presume) and it was so small I did not roast it, It was my only complete failure so far in smelting, could be the roasting or the ore. I will roast it If I try that ore again.

 Siderite breaks down through  limonite and quite a few iron oxide forms ,hematite ,magnamite and finally magnatite. I normally break the roasted rock in to small pieces from dust up to 1/2 inch . my local siderite has some sulphur in it n, the roasting does not get rid of it. I had some of the bloom analysed and there is not enough manganese in to to bind up the available sulphur, so there is some free iron sulphide in the bloom. This manifests its self by making the resultant iron orange short. Iron sulfide  at the grain boundries melts at 1050C .This was initially incredibly frustrating as the bloomery iron would break and crumble at normal smithing temp...anyhow it forges wonderfully at snowball heat, and then again at red-black , just no where in-between.....its been an interesting ride.

1 hour ago, ThomasPowers said:

Are you roasting the siderite?

 

Too big to smelt? As far as I've read it is but some of the less sophisticated smelt videos ive seen use MUCH lesser quality ore with "passable?" results(sorry for YouTube source reference). I collected 180#+/- and that was a pain I won't be able to do again until spring if at all, hoping to use all that I have. Thanks again for your time. Second pic is general proportion of particle size in the whole pile.

Sorry, *First pic*

My siderite ore is 36% iron before roasting and nearer 50% after , the rock looses 30% of its weight as co2 when roasted. I would have had problems smelting  when I first started. it as it produces a lot of slag that has to be dealt with.

Smelting is going to cost you time and money and its pointless in this day and age. If you get a chance find someone locally who does it and help them out or take a class. Its much easier to work out what you are doing with a little experience to help you out. 

It is very satisfying though.......

Sorry, *First pic*

Last pic is 12#+ ifI can break it up...i

Thanks for the advice, it has been repeated enough times on this and many other posts that I can't help but heed it. Knowing me though, curiosity, tenacity and boredom will build a stack and a fire and leave me with nothing but more questions, hope I can find someone who actually knows what they are doing first. Thanks again.

Owen is right. The smelters group is ran by my friend Mark, one of the smelting wizards of the US. Basically all if the smelting wizards view or respond there, and probably more there than any where you will see online.

Thanks for the help everyone, it is much appreciated, you've answered a lot of questions that would've taken me forever to put together on my own. The Facebook page seems like a definite must.

Np.

What is your name? A lot of people have been denied lately due to spamming potential. Need to make sure you make it through.

I'm not on Facebook now but am trying to start an account to join your page, Facebook is giving me a hard time...can I message you on your profile when I get it squared away?

Of course. Join on in.

Thanks.

Strangle enough I've been thinking along the same lines over the last summer.

Check out the NYSDB.org website, it's he local Blacksmithing group.

Typically iron foundries where site "close" to iron sources in the early 1800's. Constantia, NY had Iron Foundries, seems to have dried up and gone away in the middle 1800's, Apparently there is a "Decent" amount of Bog Iron in Lower Oswego County Swamps.

So the bog iron sources have had 150 years to rebuild.

The geological surveys I've read on the early 1800's are vague about exact sites in Oswego County, Way back when, traveling about the mosquito infested swamps, must have been too much work.

I'm told that the waterways are free, so as long as you stay in the stream, you're safe?

I plan to go looking for Bog Iron next summer.

 

Take Care.

 

Thanks for the information, I was looking along those same lines after suggestions by members, bloomeries were apparently everywhere, large and small. I'm quite a bit closer to the Adks than the Owsego area, lots of bogs out this way too, just waiting for spring now.