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Iron Smelt - Wareham, ON - June 11, 2011

Date:June 11, 2011

Location:Wareham, ON

See also: Darrell Markewitz's ironsmelting site

Team: Neil Peterson, Richard Schwietzer, Sam Falzone, Darrell Markewitz

Premise: Practice for CanIron8 presentation.

Furnace Design

TypeEconoNorse in a can (enclosed fire brick), tap arch
Extractiondismantled
Diameter25 cm
Height65 cm
Volume31890.625 cm3
Tuyure Typeceramic tube
Tuyere height from base20 cm
Tuyere penetration into furnace5 cm
Tuyere angle22 deg
Base designnatural set base cm

Burn Details

Bellow Typeblower
Avg Air rate800-900 litres per minute
Total Charcoal Mass48 Kg
Avg Burn rate min per 2 Kg
Ore TypeBratton's Run
Total Mass of Ore24-29 Kg
Burn Duration4:45 Hours

Results

Mass of Bloom2.65 Kg
Bloom TypeSoft forgable iron
Yield10%
Notes

Smelt_cd Reports of all of our iron smelting efforts along with more articles and information are available on the "Iron Smelting in the Viking Age" CD from the Wareham Forge.  Copies of the CD can be purchased here.

Discussion:




Conclusions:


The bloom produced was compacted considerably farther than our average (important in terms of yield comparisons). At time of extraction, the mass was considerably more spongy than for past smelts. Due to good hammer work by two visiting professional farriers, the bloom was compacted down to roughly the size of a pound of butter, then cleanly sliced into two rectangular slabs. On spark testing, the interior metal was found to be almost completely carbon free. This agrees with the striker's impression that this was soft forgeable iron.

The furnace itself was a well proven design, and although the working team was a bit lacking in self directed experience, the method followed was one developed through considerable past (successful) experience. Taken together, this certainly suggests the low yield was the result of the quality of the untested ore used for the smelt.

Photos:


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Early construction Mid Smelt Slag Tap Breaking down furnace
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Extracting the bloom finished bloom

Raw Data:



CLOCK ELAPSED EVENT AIR CHARCOAL     ORE      
        UNIT COUNT TOTAL UNIT   COUNT TOTAL
      LpM * bucket   kg scoop added   kg
            1.8 *       0.35 *
                     
(8:30)   team arrives on site                
(9:00)   start furnace build                
(10:40) 1:40 start pre-heat                
(11:00) :40 first charcoal addition                
                     
    re-set event clock                
12:00   ungraded charcoal to fill 400 3 E 3 5.55        
12:40 :40 ungraded charcoal 800 1 4 7.40        
12:48 :08 graded charcoal   1 5 9.25        
12:59   added top collar                
13:02 :14 double charcoal addition (fill collar)   2 7 12.95        
    ore additions started                
13:12 :10 charcoal & ore   1 8 14.80 1 0.21 1 0.21
13:20 :08 charcoal & ore   1 9 16.65 2 0.7 3 0.91
13:30 :10 charcoal & ore   1 10 18.50 3 1.05 6 1.96
13:40 0:10 charcoal & ore   1 11 20.35 3 1.05 9 3.01
13:52 0:12 charcoal & ore   1 12 22.20 3 1.05 12 4.06
14:03 0:11 charcoal & ore   1 13 24.05 4 1.4 16 5.46
14:15 0:12 charcoal & ore   1 14 25.90 4 1.4 20 6.86
14:26 0:11 charcoal & ore   1 15 27.75 5 1.75 25 8.61
14:28   adjust air 900              
14:35 :09 charcoal & ore   1 16 29.60 6 2.1 31 10.71
14:46 0:11 charcoal & ore   1 17 31.45 6 2.1 37 12.81
14:56 0:10 charcoal & ore   1 18 33.30 6 2.1 43 14.91
15:03 0:07 charcoal & ore   1 19 35.15 5 1.75 48 16.66
15:08 0:05 charcoal & ore   1 20 37.00 5 1.75 53 18.41
15:14 0:06 charcoal & ore   1 21 38.85 5 1.75 58 20.16
15:24 0:10 charcoal & ore   1 22 40.70 6 2.1 64 22.26
15:35   slag tap                
15:38 0:14 charcoal & ore   1 23 42.55 7 2.45 71 24.71
15:49 0:11 charcoal & ore   1 24 44.40 6 2.1 77 26.81
15:55 0:06 charcoal & ore   1 25 46.25 6.5 2.275 83.5 29.09
    start burn down phase                
16:20 :25 last cover layer of charcoal   1 26 48.10        
16:41 0:21 extraction begins 700              
    remove top layer of bricks                
                     
                     
  AIR all approximate (guide marks only)                
  CHARCOAL based on past average weight                
  ORE based on average scoop weight                
                     
  TOTALS Charocal 48 kg              
    Ore - as scoops / bucket weight 29 kg 24 kg            
    Time 4:45 +              
    Bloom 2.65 kg              
    Yield (estimate only) 9% 11%            
Smelt_cd Reports of all of our iron smelting efforts along with more articles and information are available on the "Iron Smelting in the Viking Age" CD from the Wareham Forge.  Copies of the CD can be purchased here.
Text © Darrell Markewitz
Photographs © Darrell Markewitz
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