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

[JAMES REVELLS]

Hej!
    There are pictures up at (
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Metalcasting/files/Olaf%27s%20Casting%20Classes%20at%20Penn/)
of the classes I did at the SPCA camp last year.  Yes, period for the Norse
culture is a side draft forge with a double bellows (2 bellows side by
side).  Most significant find in the way of forge hardware are stones that
the bellows pipe sticks through.  Many are carved with the face, presumably
that of the god of the forge.  I am not sure what the various nomadic tribes
did, I tend to stick close to home-Birka in the 9th century is where I am
concentrating my research on.
    The notes will get done as I am finishing the forge & test it out.  One
of the requirements of telling people how to do some thing is doing it first
yourself.  After I do that I will send you the notes.  I also plan to work
on a couple of more projects, doing granulation with period methods & tools
& seeing if my idea about how the Gottlandish burning glasses were made
works out.
Pax,
Olaf
----- Original Message ----- 
> 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.
> 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