eseemann Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 That might be due to the fact that Thomas Powers has all Iron under his command being lord of the anvil hunt! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 Darrel Markawits (last name/spelling ? Out of Canada has a lot of information on his blog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Turley Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 Get the film, "Inagina the last House of Iron" about the Dogon tribesmen of Mali, Africa. It'll blow your hat in the creek. Their old timey furnace had holes near the base for tuyeres, and the charcoal fire caused an induced draft, so they didn't need bellows! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 Don't even go there, he won't be able to get his hat on for quadstate! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eseemann Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 Frank, I did not know that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 I forgot about that one, Frank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rashelle Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 There are also (I don't remember them being mentioned) "From iron ore to iron hoe" and "Ore to axe". The first one available on you tube the second is a DVD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 Lovely article in "nature" on the Monsoon powered bloomeries of Ceylon (Taprobane). They were designed so that the prevailing stead 40 MPH winds would pull the air through the charge. (Interesting math describing how the effect of the wind going across the specially shaped top opening was several times stronger than the effect of the wind blowing against the holes in the base of the bloomery. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v379/n6560/abs/379060a0.html Also tall shaft bloomeries built into hillsides could get enough chimney effect to work. BTW WHO SAID BELLOWS HAVE TO BE MADE FROM LEATHER? I used a superb double lung bellows made from heavily treated canvass used in the oil patch to make wind wings for drilling rigs. Lasted over 20 years and I could pump my forge to welding temps with my pinkie. IIRC Biringuccio in the Pirotechnia (1500's) mentions using canvas for bellows. And of course as mentioned the chinese box bellows requires no leather to make. It looks like you are trying to make it as impossible as possible for yourself. May I suggest you learn the process first and then branch into doing it per earlier historical methods. I've been part of a crew doing a Y1K short stack scandinavian bloomery digging the clay from the creek It took several years of experiments before we got good results---15 pound blooms in a human powered bloomery. The leaders presented on their then 10 years of experiments at the Iron Masters Conference held in Athens OH 15+? years ago "The Mastery and Uses of Fire in Antiquity" Rehder, has plans for a "foolproof "modern" bloomery in it's appendices Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted June 9, 2016 Share Posted June 9, 2016 On 6/4/2016 at 5:44 PM, SmoothBore said: Having sat in way too many "morning meetings", representing the Manufacturing-Engineering Department at a major US automaker, ... you become quite accustomed to communicating to people who have never actually done anything, ... simple facts that often fail to match their preconceived notions. Now, you have all enjoyed that same experience. As had Saint Paul, when he so eloquently stated in 2nd Corinthians ... "For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise". and as an Electrician I get that a lot also. usually the "You can reuse this wire I got, rather than charge me for new" type people, who have never seen what happens when high voltage leaks because of poor or damaged insulation.... it never ends well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Ivan Posted June 11, 2016 Share Posted June 11, 2016 Make a wind tunnel in prevailing winds. Basically channel existing winds into the furnace. Your tuyere should be clay and straw if you want to be primitive about it. What are you gonna use for a hammer? Stone lashed to a stick? Anvil stone once the bloom is refined enough to work over a solid surface? If you do have all the skill as you say then making to set up should be easy. Getting a usable bloom will be the real trick. Knowing how to refine it without ruining it is another story all together. Are you getting your ore with a modern shovel? If so, why cut corners here and there? You are not after an easy task, though it will be incredibly rewarding if you succeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted June 11, 2016 Share Posted June 11, 2016 You may want to go with modern conveniences in order to learn blacksmithing. You will then have a data base and experience to draw from. Change only one thing at a time (stone anvil for instance) and see if you can get acceptable results. Then change to a stone hammer and work with that change to get acceptable results. By working with modern conveniences first, you will know what YOU want and consider acceptable. Trying to reinvent thousands of years of history from the start will take thousands of years to figure everything out. As was said earlier, are you going to use a modern shovel to dig the iron rich sand? Are you going to carry the iron rich sand in a wheel borrow or a plastic bucket? You may want to say close enough at some point and enjoy blacksmithing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 Most of the folks I know have trouble producing enough iron for a fish hook their first go at it unless they are exactly following a known good process. And yes I know enough of them to have a decent statistical universe... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gote Posted July 2, 2016 Share Posted July 2, 2016 There was a method of producing iron using air by mouth only but the production rate was very slow. The "kiln" resembled a large tobacco pipe and part of the trick was the moisture from the exhaled air. The oxygen in the water forming CO/CO2 with the carbon and the hydrogen reducing the oxygen in the ore. The result was of a very high quality. The method was abandoned at least 1500 years ago maybe 2000 years ago. I tried in vain to find the reference but it was in Norwegian anyway. As far as I can remember Norwegian archaeologists found a number of these "kilns" and even made some tests. The report presented production rates and percentage of the ore that was converted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted July 2, 2016 Share Posted July 2, 2016 Re: hollow reed and lung power. My very first "forge" when I was a kid was a clay-lined juice can fired with charcoal briquettes and a blowpipe (which, to no-ones surprise, didn't work particularly well). Speaking from experience, the first time your focus slips and you INhale through the tube will be the moment you give up mouth-blown forging! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted July 2, 2016 Share Posted July 2, 2016 One of many PAY ATTENTION lessons. Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eseemann Posted July 24, 2016 Share Posted July 24, 2016 On 7/2/2016 at 2:11 PM, JHCC said: Re: hollow reed and lung power. My very first "forge" when I was a kid was a clay-lined juice can fired with charcoal briquettes and a blowpipe (which, to no-ones surprise, didn't work particularly well). Speaking from experience, the first time your focus slips and you INhale through the tube will be the moment you give up mouth-blown forging! I remember some TV show (maybe the Carol Burnett show) gag about how not to use a blow gun and that was rule #1. inhale BEFORE putting the blowgun to your mouth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natkova Posted August 12, 2016 Share Posted August 12, 2016 Double lung bellows are nice but you can't build it from everything i think you could but naah. Don't do it it will just make you sad. And build it when you have space time money. Since i come from old Country wich is bridge off East and West i can teach you how things are mixed in here i mean blacksmithing, Turkish adzze Hungarian Bellows, and other tools that are too old for some part of World. They are rare here but drawings and ideas traditions are not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natkova Posted August 12, 2016 Share Posted August 12, 2016 Every nation in Europe have their own stly how bellows are made France have different than Austro Hungay Germany different Russia. Some have box nozzle , and yes North Europe country have their on stlye. South Europe different, Britain. I studied them for 2 years. You just need to google war forge for example some century i mean Usa have it Colonial, France Napoleonic wars, wars are important at forge casue it is fast solution to find it. I mean traveling foge i don't know in english how they are called "Field forge" i think go to google translate try German Blasebalg, try other lenguages in google search for more informations. Example France i had drawings of "Soufflet but i lost it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lcb Posted August 15, 2017 Share Posted August 15, 2017 Roy Underhill at the Woodwright Shop PBS did a show about the whole process. Iron rich bog stones - bloomery- pig iron - forge - chisel. See if you can find the video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted August 15, 2017 Share Posted August 15, 2017 Isn't there a bloomadary in India that uses the winds winds generated my the monsoons? So no a bellows is not strictly needed, how ever some method of increasing air to the fire is, posable a high stack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 15, 2017 Share Posted August 15, 2017 Sri Lanka, it was published in nature and in the book "Early Iron and Steel in Sri Lanka" Gillian Juleff of course having sustained 40 kph winds helps a lot... Now for a smithing technique Alexander Weygers mentions a paint can forge he built that used a piece of irrigation pipe as a chimney to draw air through hole in the bottom of the paint can to "blow" a charcoal fire that he was making engraving chisels in. The "door" controlled the amount of blast he was getting. This is covered in "The Complete Modern Blacksmith" as I recall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted August 15, 2017 Share Posted August 15, 2017 Both the modern and compleatly modern. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now