[Sca-cooks] RE: Viking Clay Mold Casting classes

[Harris Mark.S-rsve60]

Olaf replied to me with:
>>>
    Thanks, Stefan, I understand about time at Pennsic, but it is not a
quick subject to teach in a hands on way.  
<<<
Yep. I run my simpler hands-on class on pewter casting using carved soapstone molds as a two part class for similar reasons.

<<<
The best article I have seen (in
fact where I learned most of what I know) is online at:
http://members.chello.se/vikingbronze/
<<<
Thank you. I'll take a look.

>>>
   No mater what happens I will be bringing examples of stuff I am working
on now.  I will also be bringing a forge that is set up for traveling, but
uses the traditional style Norse hole-in-the-dirt forge, but is in a box so
I don't have to dig holes at events (thanks to Phlip for showing me pictures
of the Wolves of Woton forge set up).  
<<<
Oh! This didn't occur to me until now. I guess it would be simpler making the forge on/in the ground. But how do you get a good airflow into/under the fire? I seem to remember most modern forges at least, using a blower to blow air into the underside of the fire. Hmm. But the medieval bellows didn't do that, did they? They blew onto the side of the fire. So I guess the Norse could have done somehing similar. Did they use a bellows or something similar to increase the oxygen flow to the fire?

What did the Mongols or other nomadic folks do? Using a hole does seem to be easier for a nomadic people rather than carrying around some kind of forge. Or did the Mongols not make their own iron, rather trading or otherwise obtaining it from other people? It doesn't seem like they stuck around enough to mine the ore, either. But I guess you could buy/steal/tax for the raw iron and then process that yourself.

>>>
I plan to do a set of notes on the
forge & my version of the process this summer.  If I am confident in the
material I will let you publish it in the foliothig a ma jig.
<<<
Wonderful. Please remember that one of my standard policies is to accept article updates at any time. So you can write down what you have this summer and you can always update it at a later time. In the meantime, folks such as myself can be learning from the article, even if it isn't perfect yet.

Stefan