[Sca-cooks] Charcoal forge suggestion ;-)

[Stefan li Rous]

Vincenzo commented:
> Phlip wrote:
> > Stefan wrote:
> >> I remember trying to use a clay flower pot saucer to hold charcoal
> >> for a period pewter casting demo at an event but the heat cracked
> >> it.
>
> [snip]
>
> > Stefan,
> >
> > Of COURSE it cracked- a flower pot just isn't up to the temperatures 
> you
> > generate when you're operating a forge. And the brake drum is not 
> "just to
> > fill up space", it's there not only to handle the temperatures that 
> a forge
> > can generate, it's to shape and direct the fire,
>
> For the large version of that 'shape and direct the fire' concept,
> please see
> http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?
> galleryid=499266&Artist=MGD&ByArtist=Yes
> http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?
> galleryid=655021&Artist=MGD&ByArtist=Yes
Yes, quite a lot of shaping and directing the fire there, but I believe 
that the photo is showing a smelter, not a forge.

Several teams have built and run smelters at Pennsic over the years, 
although a bit smaller than this one. The website mentions this being 
next to a river to provide water power for the operation. My suspicion 
is that the water power did nothing for the smelter(s) except perhaps 
power bellows. Rather it was used to drive the trip-hammers used to 
process the blooms after they were pulled from the smelter. And the 
area likely had a number of forges handling the processed iron or this 
was referring to the trip hammer operation or the area as a whole and 
not specifically to those stone tower smelters.

Phlip? other metalworkers have comments or corrections?

A team at the last Pennsic used both local clay and local ore in their 
smelter.

For a humorous story on one of the previous Pennsic smelter experiments:
P-tale-MWIFO-art  (23K)  8/26/96    Making Wrought Iron from Ore at 
Pennsic 24.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/PENNSIC/P-tale-MWIFO-art.html

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****