ANST - Smelting Iron

[Mark.S Harris]

Joe Wolf wrote:

> How would one go about smelting a small quantity of iron?  Say, large enough for a 
>dagger.  I understand that a large quantity of ore is subjected to high heat
until a 
>"bloom" of iron makes its way to the bottom... but what else is involved? 
Anyone have 
>experience with this, or know some great reference sources?
> 
> Lord Manfred Wolf - Budding knife maker, but tired of stock removal
> Barony of the StarGate, Ansteorra

For an amusing, interesting story of a group that built a smelter at Pennsic
and actually smelted a small quantity of iron, take a look at this file
in the PENNSIC section of my Stefan's Florilegium files:

P-tale-MWIFO-art  (23K)  8/26/96    Making Wrought Iron from Ore at Pennsic 24.

While this will get you wrought iron, you will want to know a bit more about
turning this raw material into a blade. For this, take a look at this file
in the CRAFTS section of my files:

bladesmithing-msg (39K)  8/14/97    Steel sources, making knives and swords.

The following files will also give you some ideas about the other equipment,
resources and procedures needed.

bellows-msg       (19K)  4/ 2/98    Medieval bellows.
blacksmithing-msg (45K)  3/25/97    Blacksmithing, forges, tools.
blksm-anvils-msg  (36K)  3/31/97    Blacksmithing anvils. sources.
blksm-forges-msg  (27K)  1/16/97    Blacksmithing forges. sources.
blksm-welding-msg (23K)  3/25/97    Forge welding. fluxes.

My files can be found at:
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/rialto/rialto.html

I watched William the Smith and his group build another smelter at Pennsic XXV.
I would love to help out if some folks wanted to try this at a local event.

Ld. Stefan li Rous
Barony of Bryn Gwlad
stefan at texas.net
============================================================================
Go to http://www.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.