16th century Swedish iron

[George N. M.]

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/70349#respond

[Frosty]

Thanks for the link George, I love this stuff. It sounds like there were 20 more barrels of refined ore, I wonder if they'll try forging something from a couple osmunds. I wonder what the analysis will be, Swedish steel was and is known for it's exceptional impurities like vanadium. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Mike BR]

Neat blog, but it isn't really correct (or at least incomplete) to call osmond iron "furnace-cast iron."  Rather, it's sort of pre-wrought wrought iron.  Pig iron was remelted in a small hearth. As the carbon was burned out, the melting point increased, and lumps of  (roughly) pure iron were collected into "osmonds."  After export of this intermediate product was prohibited, Sweden started building the hammers necessary to forge it out into wrought iron.  There's a short description here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmond_process (it doesn't mention the decarburization, but it would be pretty silly to melt pig iron into pig iron.)

[Nobody Special]

I saw that article. Found this one awhile back with some general background and discussion of some Swedish osmund iron found in Estonia. Still trying to figure out if I agree with the metallurgy. It's not too awful, but it reads a bit like it's been translated by the guy that writes IKEA instruction guides. Microsoft Word - Kex -Ellinor, Felicia-2.docx (diva-portal.org)

[Mike BR]

Thanks!  A lot more informative then the Wikipedia article.