Justin Topp Posted January 31, 2020 Share Posted January 31, 2020 Hey everyone. I’ve been doing lots of research and wanted some more general advise tips and tricks. I was given 18lbs of big iron ore for free in order to try and smelt it. Hoping to get a useable chunk of wrought iron from it. I’m sure it won’t be a big chunk but just something small at least. So any tips and tricks? Roughly How much can I expect to get from this in terms of a bloom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 31, 2020 Share Posted January 31, 2020 0 to 9 pounds max; with the upper limits a real stretch for a first time smeltor. What type of bloomery will you be building? Will you be roasting the ore? Grinding? (Have you seen the "foolproof" bloomery plans in Rehder's "The Mastery and Uses of Fire in Antiquity"? It also depends on fluxing and percentage of Fe in the ore. You can't get more than you start with minus what's carried off in slag. Folks I worked with; their first trials they were talking about making axes and ended up with maybe enough to make fishhooks. After around 10 years of experimentation of hand built, hand powered short stack Scandinavian Bloomeries (Early Medieval) they were getting 15# blooms from a good run---they presented on it at the Ironmasters Conference held at Athens OH around 20 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Topp Posted January 31, 2020 Author Share Posted January 31, 2020 Max 9 lbs? That’s a ton more than I expected. I would’ve assumed like 3-4 max. I had planned on roasting and grinding unless that’s not recommended? I will check out the Bloomery plans thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 31, 2020 Share Posted January 31, 2020 Did you read the part where I said it depends on the Fe content of the ore and other factors? I'd be surprised if you got 4 your first go. Grinding into a finer materials makes it easier to reduce. Roasting can help drive off various non-helpful elements (and is pretty much mandatory for sulfur containing ores.) Roasting can also make it easier to grind up. You do know that forging scale is an excellent iron ore, Magnetite, and quit similar to the "black sand" the Japanese used in their tatara furnaces. You may be able to pad out your ore by collecting your scale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Topp Posted January 31, 2020 Author Share Posted January 31, 2020 Yup I read that but I didn’t think the iron content could be high enough to be about 50% iron. Still new. I’d be happy to get any useable iron. Good idea on the scale it’s basically rust isn’t it? My anvil has a good sized pile around the base and some on the ground swept against the stand I could collect and add. Must be a few pounds of scale at least. It’s 2” deep right against the foot of the anvil. Thanks for clarifying the grinding/roasting purposes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stash Posted January 31, 2020 Share Posted January 31, 2020 You might want to check out Lee Sauder's site. (Just google him.) He has ben doing a lot of current bloomery smelting research, and there's lots of info on his site. I was involved in 2 smelts with him this past fall. one smelt we used ~80# of roasted ore (limonite- sp?) and got a 25# bloom. He said he used some bog iron not too long ago in Ireland, it was some of the best ore he had used. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Topp Posted January 31, 2020 Author Share Posted January 31, 2020 Cool thanks I’ll search him up. A 25 lb bloom is impressive. This bog iron seems to be fairly good from what I’ve seen. I can see rust and it looks like what I think is good stuff. Very cool looking pieces like this one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 31, 2020 Share Posted January 31, 2020 Stash, was he using a blower or hand powered air? 15 pounds with hand powered air is pretty good in my book---I've been the bellows thrall before! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stash Posted February 1, 2020 Share Posted February 1, 2020 He used recycled industrial vacuum pumps for the blower, with a pivoting blast gate on the intake. He also used a copper tuyere, set 1 1/2" into the furnace, with no melting or degradation over 2 smelts. Actually 2 smelts going on concurrently for a total of 4 smelts over 2 days. Not sure about the Irish smelt, but I expect it was similar- not hand pumped. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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