Iron Smelt - Wareham, ON - Nov 5, 2011

Date:Nov 5, 2011

Location:Wareham, ON

See also: Darrell Markewitz's ironsmelting site

Team: Neil Peterson, Darrell Markewitz, Ian Fleming, Lloyd Johnson

Premise: Second pass at Slag Pit but with better ore

Furnace Design

Burn Details

Results

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:

This experiment builds on the system profile from October 8. As was suspected, the general layout of the pit and furnace combination proved workable. The shift to a iron rich ore completed the mechanism, the proof being in a high yield of nicely dense, forgeable iron bloom.

The operation of the furnace was virtually flawless. At no time was any significant liquid slag observed at the tuyere, with no interuption of air. Intentionally the consumption rate was kept to the 10 - 12 minute per standard (1.8 kg) charcoal measure. This was because of a concern the pure taconite ore might tend to produce a high carbon cast iron otherwise.

One other result was that the furnace itself has proven both stable and durable. After the smelt, the body of the furnace was carefully placed on wooden planks, then slid off to one side of the smelt area. After the slag block was excavated, the retaining walls were replaced, the pit filled with earth / ash / slag mixture. With the furnace body slid back into place, there is no reason that another smelt could not be undertaken using the same structure. Noteably, the ceramic tuyere, which at this point has endured three separate full smelts, shows every sign of being able to withstand yet another.

Photos:

Smelter Setup	Big Bloom	Slag block

Raw Data:

CLOCK	ELAPSED	EVENT	AIR			CHARCOAL			ORE
						UNIT	COUNT	TOTAL	UNIT	COUNT	TOTAL
			gage	LpM	P	bucket		kg	scoop	kg	kg
											0.28
12:00		start bark pieces pre-heat	3	300
12:50	:50	fill with rough charcoal	8	800		3	3
13:15	:25	reaction column hot
13:20	(1:20)	pre-heat complete				3	6	10.80
12:00		main sequence start
12:10	:10	graded charcoal				1	7
12:23	:13					1	8
12:34	:11					1	9
12:45	:11	finish 8.5 kg / increase air	9	900		1	10	8.50
12:51		first ore addition							at 3/4
13:00	:15					1	11			1	1
13:11	:11					1	12			1	2
13:22	0:11					1	13			1	3
13:34	0:12					1	14			1	4
13:45	0:11	finish 8.75 kg				1	15	17.25		1	5
13:58	0:13					1	16			1	6
		increase ore amount							at 1.25
14:10	:12					1	17			1.5	7.5
14:22	0:12	finish 6.75				1	18	24.00		1.5	9
14:34	0:12					1	19			1.5	10.5
14:42	0:08					1	20			1.5	12
		increase ore amount							at 2
14:51	:09					1	21			2	14
14:58	0:07					1	22			2	16
15:07	0:09	finish 9 kg				1	23	33.00		2	18
15:13	0:06	all ore added				1	24			1.2	19.2
15:17		reduce air	8	800
15:24	:011					1	25
15:31	0:07	final charcoal added / burn down				1	26	38.40
15:41		reduce air	5	500
16:00		approximate extraction time
		TOTALS
	TIME	pre-heat	1:20	hrs
		main sequence	4	hrs
		TOTAL	5:30 +	hrs
	ORE	TOTAL - taconite	19.2	kg
	CHARCOAL	rough	10.8	kg
		graded	38.4	kg
		TOTAL	48.4	kg
	BLOOM	TOTAL	6.4	kg
		YIELD	33	%

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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