The furnace behaved better than normal but could have done better as the blower broke during use and there was a period where I was fixing it when no air was being supplied (the fan also needed fixing on the fly). The furnace seems to consume charcoal faster than usual for the same effort when it is working which is good as it means it is getting hotter. 10 charges of ore and charcoal were used and 34 g of iron were made (the third best). The best smelts I've done produced 41g and 39 g for 6 charges and they can be seen in the iron knife video ( th-cam.com/video/dhW4XFGQB4o/w-d-xo.html ). I'll repair the blower and test it again some time. Thanks. (Edit: reminder to turn on captions )
Do you ever worry about the wood smoke? I always wonder why you never have a chimney or flue. Would a flue not allow you to retain more heat while removing the harmful gasses?
I hope everyone understands what a colossal flex (the good kind) his choice to include the fire starting in real time is. The fact he can do it in 30 seconds is a supreme demonstration of skill
He's been doing it for a decade now. It's second nature for him, I imagine. If this guy has his fire stick, he can get an ember going faster than I can find my Bic lighter.
I can do the hand drill, best I’ve done is a coal in 2 minutes… I’m completely blown away by how easy he made it took. I’m struggling and sweaty to get it going 😂
@@stephenp4222 this guy gets it! best i have done is recieve blisters and failure, but from what ive seen, two minutes is good, 30 seconds is ...basically sorcery
One thing I love is that this channel silently demonstrates why humans came together. Doing all this alone takes such a long time, but with a group of people all doing these different things, the speed at which anything gets done does up so quickly.
@@Kaiimei 1. Diversity of skills proficiency required 2. Diverse background knowledge sufficient to make workable decisions without overmuch time spent on experimentation. 3. Economies of synchronization, many of these tasks are most efficient done continuously and/or in parallel, generally impossible alone.
@@thebugbouncer One person couldn't live like this dumbass. It shows exactly why humans have never lived alone, this guy doesn't raise animals, or plant/harvest crops. This is all he does and it takes up all his time. Humans don't survive on their own.
I’ve heard that at the time, iron was a fair bit more common since we hadn’t used up all of the “easy” to get to stuff yet. Plus, there probably would’ve been a lot more than just one guy at a time going out to mine iron. It still would’ve been really hard, but not quite as hard as it is to do solo nowadays.
Different geographic regions have different forms of iron. Some regions had a much easier time collecting raw ore. I believe similar reasoning is why glass work from ancient middle east is still unmatched, they had bountiful silica sand so it was easy to collect resources for glass blowing.
It was significantly easier than what he is doing. For one thing one person didn't do everything. One person would retrieve the high quality ore. Another would make charcoal. And someone else would process the ore.
@@Imaboss8ball I’d imagine that it wouldn’t be much easier on a per person basis, since they’d still put in as much work as they could. But collectively it’d be easier to accumulate large amounts of iron
It's exciting to see him collect the iron prills, it builds up my anticipation to see what he's gonna make out of them regardless of the size of the finished product
TBH I'm glad his TV show didn't pan out because I know they would push him to change the format or to cheat like so many other fake "primitive" channels out there. Now he can continue what he was doing unimpeded and we get to enjoy it.
@@cptn_chromo3189honestly though if he could get just one friend or a son out there to help him I think it would be an amazing and welcome addition to the channel! I feel like work would be finisheduch quicker and with less effort from John so he doesn't possibly get burned out (no pun intended) or lose patience while working. And if his friend happened to be a Smith or metal expert who could add knowledge to the forging and processing techniques, it would make for higher quality products that would just amazing the audience even further. But obviously that isn't his style, he is a solo worker and I respect that, but aan can dream, can't he? 😅
He could have posted an update though, even just a text message. Instead he just fucked off without a peep. I thought he died or something. Only found out he was still alive cause someone reached out to him and commented under his last video. Didn't even bother to do it himself.
I will never get bored watching John in the wild do for the "first time" what our ancestors did thousands of years ago. I'm amazed for two reasons, one for the amount of time and effort John puts into doing this experiment, and two on how our ancestors understood all of these passages, especially for the iron making, just by trial and errors. Really amazing. Thanks John I really appreciate your dedication.
You can increase your yield by starting out with smelting some of the slag from previous smelts, to create an initial slag bath for the new iron to form in.
@@primitivetechnology9550 so you have made a metal knife , recently most of your videos are furnace uprgrades and such Whats you plan for the metal? I’m so excited to see the advancements whilst staying primative
It just amazes me how much your technique changes and improves over the years. When you were creating the furnace I was taking careful note of how you shaped and manipulated the clay and the lack of effort you seemed to be putting into it. You made it look like a simple and trivial affair. You lines, distancing, and shaping were spot on as if you had done it thousands of times before. When compared to you much older videos it is clearly obvious that are constantly improving. Keep up the great work. I love watching it.
I feel like it’s safe to say that this guy is a one man village at this point, he goes around to his different structures doing all the different jobs that would normally be done by different people all by himself, it’s very impressive
that’s actually a very cool perspective. I always liked to imagine my ancestors doing this stuff, i never thought of a whole village of people doing all of this
Imagine this work being done by 10-20 people, while other 5 hunt for food. It’s awesome to see how and why humanity chose to form small communities and benefit from team work.
Funny, that's exactly the thought I had watching his smelting setup! Like the creations of an entire community, or a family passing it on! Now a village of Johns, that would be a sight to behold!
Very nice design. I can imagine you adding a tall removable chimney on top of the furnace, bringing in a big flat stone anvil, increasing the size of your fan, and eventually forging iron into steel. I love seeing the processes evolve. Every time you post a video, I get so excited to watch it. It is so soothing, and melts my stress away. Thank you for the amazing content!
Well technically cast iron is a super high carbon steel, im actually not sure why its absorbing so much carbon to begin with, his bloomaries never seem to behave like normal ones, like he is reaching the peak temperatures, and he is using a relatively quality ore. I think he needs to add some silica to the ore to act as a flux, then he should expect some higher quality blooms
@@markd.s.8625 there is a huge variety in the types of ore used, bog iron, magnetite, other kinds of stone bound ore, the iron bacteria seems to be a similar quality to bog iron (the best one to use)
@@kadeskorni296 he didnt always do an initial roast but it still produced cast iron (excessive carbon) maybe he is overdoing the airflow and fully melting the iron, that often results in unusable steel and cast iron in regular bloomaries. To be clear im not sure nor do i have any actual experience with bloomaries, i just did a lot of research in what can go right or wrong
Never imagine how seeing rusty spots would be satisfying! There will always be slag, but if you cover the very bottom of the furnace with that “clay” based in ash and water only? Maybe it would prevent some silica from get smelted into the result. Really nice work!!
Much appreciated. The slag and iron mass sort of sits on a layer of unburnt charcoal that doesn't get air so that the slag and iron don't actually touch the floor of the furnace. I could try it though, it might help insulate if from the ground beneath the furnace. Thanks.
I was thinking about placing the ore in a stone recepticle. Seperating it from the charcoal. But creating such a stone "cup" in primitive conditions would require a metal chizel i think.
I've seen you make a friction fire countless times, but this close-in angle was an incredible shot. I've never seen it done that way! Being that close to the action really shows your expertise.
My favorite part was when the forge went FWHOM after the first charge was loaded. Thanks for continuing this adventure, I'm really excited for the progress you're making.
@@nik9094 Low thermal conductivity, it takes a lot of time to heat and being in that comprissed space doesn't let any heat go to the sides and it all converges upwards where you want it for better oxigen consumption, faster heating and higher temperatures
@nik9094 Air is the real insulator, the ash traps it in thousands of tiny pockets that stop heat conducting or convecting away from the inner furnace. It's also as burnt as it's ever going to get, so the heat won't degrade it.
From 1:40 to 2:14 with the hand drill has to be one of your best composed and shot friction-fire sequences, John. I could just sit and watch the ember slowly growing. Something about that simple shot just made my evening. Thanks.
Same, i watched this sequence several times, also apreciate that you always include repetitions of processes you demonstrated before, it is fascinating to follow along with your experimentation an gradual improvements. Thank You!
I don't know how long I've been watching your videos but I'm amazed every time. I especially love the recently added step-by-step fast-track parts that show the entire process.
One thing I have always liked about this channel is the amount of attention to detail on the little things, while not staying too long for each action. Its just enough to show us that you're genuinely putting in the effort while not being too much as to drag on the video. Plus, the lack of scale helps me believe that all this is genuine and not one of those fake hole in the ground pool videos.
I love seeing the process of trying different things and discarding what doesn't work as well. Manual panning instead of the washboard device because it's simpler, making the fire without the bow because it's unnecessary, experimenting with various ways to improve iron yield. It's a fun journey to follow you on.
Shame you lost some smelting time due to equipment breakage, but the new furnace output looks promising. Creating some backup parts is probably in order now, especially with the amount of usage they see. Looking forward to the iron tool you'll construct once you gather enough prills from the forge.
The smart choice would be something that improves the efficiency of getting more iron. He is basically skipping over bronze age tech in favor of iron, so it's understandably slow.
This is the first time in my TH-cam history that I have actually seen the wood dust accumulating with a fire drill. Most well done! In addition, these iron-melting videos never get old. 😍
Creating iron from muck is magic indeed. Magic of the ancients. I like that you don’t “cheat” and use ore, you’re doing it truly primitive. As always, top notch YT content. Now I have to go back and watch them all again, for hundredth time.
I’m pretty sure iron was (relatively) plentiful enough during the Iron Age that nobody would’ve even thought of using that funny orange muck to make metal when they could use rocks instead. But I’m not a historian, that’s just what I’ve heard other people say.
He doesn't use ore because he simply doesn't have any nearby. His only sources of iron are iron bacteria and magnetite sand. He experimented with washing the sand to extract iron, but i assume it required more effort than iron bacteria method for the same result
I think it's important to note just how much effort and time have gone into getting just that much iron. It's a couple handfuls over a year. Just demonstrates how big a game changer it is having even a dozen people in a community to do the various tasks needed. Also, the difference it makes relying on bacteria vs mining a vein.
I'm hoping for a crude Knife, it would be a huge step up for its uses, that, or an axe if he can get enough iron. I would prefer he climb the technology tree step by step though, so a knife with wooden handle.
He made sort of a proto knife before so that would be my guess. That or some other kind of tool, something that would overall make work easier or possible. Metal hammer for more metalworking? Probably not, but it's a possibility. Metal axe? Maybe. Upgrade from the original stone hatchet.
Looks like he grabbed it by a protruding point, so that spot may have been cooler than the rest of the lump. Also it was still covered in ash, giving his hands some insulation.
@@technocolossus i used to hang out in and sometimes work at a hookah lounge. grabbing red hot coals between thumb and finger was nothing after a while.
Вот оно, живое потверждение человеческого гения. Где бы человек ни был, он всегда может добиться своих целей. Одно удовольствие наблюдать за таким трудом.
It's a super cool way of demonstrating the actual mechanics of fire: Carbon burns partially, releasing carbon monoxide gas, which then (with enough additional heat and oxygen) burns in the air above the fuel, giving that all-so-familiar flame shape we love.
After all these years, I still feel like the thing Jon is most proud of is his ability to make fire from sticks. And in fairness, considering this is the skill that turned humans from animals onto people, I get why.
Man casually recreates hundreds of years of human technological innovations in the span of a few years, and proceeds to post it on a social media site. Good work, love the content, really satisfying to watch!
This is the channel I'm most facinated by on youtube. Others educate me more on topics I am interested in or are more entertaining but none is as facinating as this one. I love the timelapse addition to the newer videos, and I want to make very clear that what this channel gives me more than any other is passion. This passion project is inspiring.
For me I am very curious about a particular question: If society was torn down, but we still kept access to knowledge, how long would it take to get back to where we are today? When you watch this video, you realize that the answer is only a few generations. To get from hunter-gatherer to digital citizen took 10's of thousands of years, but if it all burns down tomorrow, assuming we are able to preserve access to knowledge in books and whatnot, we will be back to the silicon age in 100 years or less. I don't know why I find the question interesting, but I do. Like you I am fascinated by it, but maybe for slightly different reasons.
@@mckenziekeith7434 that's pretty much the story of Dr stone. An anime about a kid who's a walking encyclopedia in a world hit by some mysterious event and he wants to go back to space in his lifetime. And he has to build back up from nothing. It isn't super realistic but you might enjoy it.
It is fascinating to realise, how much laber goes into a little bit of iron.. good thing it can easily be reused and has accumulated over time. Nowadays, every person on Earth (especyialy in global north) has easy acces and use of many kilogramms of the stuff!
@@mckenziekeith7434 not just knowledge, but also resources. there will still be plenty of destroyed or even still usable objects and materials around, and if you need to make something, it is way easier to melt down an already refined copper cable instead of raw copper ore for example. if it was somehow only people and knowledge that got preserved then it would probably take more than 100 years, but that is not really a realistic scenario anyway
things I would do to improve iron yield on your design: 1. make the air come in at an angle, so that it spirals out making it more efficient 2. have some sort of crucible at the bottom 3. let it be hot for longer so that the iron goes to the bottom and the slag to the top
Great recommendation regarding the spiral. What is the slag? Is it of any use? He sure does seem to get a lot of it. And is it possible to put it into a crucible at the bottom at the start to keep it refined vs. mixing in with the charcol? Also why does he mix in the powder so slowly? I'm full of questions!
@@abcqer555I'm not an expert, but from the few videos I've been able to find on the subject over the past few months, I believe introducing the ore and coal in smaller batches helps it heat more evenly. As for what the slag is, it's everything from the ore that wasn't iron, mixed with carbon from the charcoal. Some methods also involve adding a flux like silica (a main part of sand) or borax (I think?), which causes the heated slag (again, anything besides the metal) to become more fluid, allowing the iron to form into bigger pills (I think). This also causes the resulting slag to become slightly more glass like which I think is pretty cool.
@@AeyakS A gear spun blower would increase the gearing and allow the blower to spin faster. This would push more air (with it oxygen) which would burn the fuel faster and raise the temp. The ashes were used as insulation to increase the temp by reducing losses. I don't think air flow stability is much of a factor
Also the slag seems like it could be used as an insulator, its structure resembles that of a cellular cinder block. Maybe mix the slag with mortar and cast it to the furnace casing? It'll probably help the structure last longer too.
The ecstatic joy at the collective work of hundreds if not thousands of hours coming to fruition has to be amazing, though it would be hard to explain to someone that it looks like a bunch of pebbles in a pot, but still, so cool. I can't wait to see more.
Most of the focus so far has (rightly) been on the smelting process, but I'm also curious if there are ways to encourage more or faster growth of the "ore" bacteria. Another great video!
@@capertillar4634 when you put several villagers in the middle of a lake, they build an iron golem, but since they cant actually do it the iron just gets spread around in the water
im pretty sure he already concentrated it in a part of the stream. and put rocks around to make a slow point in the water flow so it can collect and grow.
Wow I actually have to hand it to you. With the upgraded kiln, plus insulation your yield has gone way up. It's quite surprising. Especially the size of the shot pellets as well. Very impressive. Here's to figuring out comprehensive smelting soon! Soon you'll be casting iron like a madman!
Even more of a madman if he starts puddling it. I only know of larger scale examples from history, so I'm not sure if that technique scales down to this scale if limited to primitive/manual means or not. I imagine his next step is going to be making a crucible so he can do one melt of all his collected prills and such.
I mean Australia has some of the largest iron ore deposits in the world 😂 the ground is litterally red because of the iron. I don't think he needs to move countries. Maybe states
@@Jeremy-wh4di I think he said somewhere that there is no iron ore were he does his videos, so he resorts to bacteria. This is pretty impressive actually.
incredible amount of energy needed to extract the metal, I cant help wondering how long these skills took to learn and refine to produce a cutting edge in history. great video once again. thank you.
Historically speaking, you wouldn't usually be extracting Iron from bacteria, but from ore deposits found in stone, like hematite. PT simply doesn't have any of that locally to work with. Essentially he chose to enter the Iron age on hard mode.
Copper and bronze had been utilized for hundreds of years before iron became widespread, and those metals are much easier to work with. Iron smelting was a gradual process, but definently still required a ton of effort over many generations. Although this guy is alone and doesnt have access to good quality ore, he only has iron bacteria and a bit of magnetite sand.
@@scottmacgregor3444ironically that is where you are wrong. It wasn't till later into the iron age that they began mining iron ore, a lot of it came from bog iron or iron sand to begin with
@@scottmacgregor3444 Yes. Mineral processes with the help of bacteria concentrate iron into little nodules. The nodules are carefully harvested so the bog can keep producing them. Iron as a renewable resource - crazy, huh?
Got to love the effort and dedication here. He's always evolving and upping the ante. Trying to take that next leap. Leave this guy in the woods for long enough and soon enough he'll fly out of there on his personal spaceship.
Don't take it the wrong way but your videos are perfect for going to bed. I love your content and I am always interested to see what you built this time, it's very nice knowing you stay true to pacing, noise levels and action in your shots across all videos, enabling me to really calm down. Thanks for always sharing your hobby with us!
I love how you always add the fire starting process with the sticks. I'd be interested to see how you get any residual iron from the stag. Don't forget to save the ash if you dismantle that furnace! You can use it for more wood ash clay.
I empathize with you so much during this process. I'm really into diemaking as a hobbyist machinist and it feels like a Sisyphean task sometimes. Great to see you are making progress. There's always improvements to be made. Some day you'll nail down the last bug in your system and you'll be making iron like nobodys business.
I swear waiting for the next primitive technology upload is the most torturous thing I have to live with but the wait is always worth it. wonderful design. I'd love to have my own land to dabble in this sort of thing some day in the future
Thanks for this upload. This is not just an excelent step by step method for the practical procedure. This is also a history lesson which brings insight to how much effort man had to put in, just to get a small piece of refined material. Thanks for doing this over the years. Honestly one of the best channels of all of youtube. Peace from Sweden
Man I've been watching your videos for over 5 years now and you never cease to amaze me with what you do. Thank you for always providing great content and a chance to learn new things!
Great to see you putting out a stream of videos again. So many people find watching your content to be a real Zen time; no technology distractions, the natural settings and always a great learning experience in your content. Mind you, in comparison to your pre-Covid videos, it does look like someone was in a good paddock during the lockdowns. 😄
There is a certain irony in saying no technology distractions, we are watching a guy on a technology device re-create the technologies of our ancestors. But, it is undoubtedly more connected to the natural environment.
Just curious, what makes you think he was with horses during any lockdown? I would guess he might live so far away from dense populations that he didn't need to do any real lockdown. I would never ask for such details but just a thought.
@@maxxtubing 1. He has modern house and live like regular person when not making videos 2. He also, during his hiatus, had a TV Deal being made or something. I don't know if it has been aired, cable exclusive or what.
@@victoriazero8869he has a modern house... on the property we see here. He does live in a fairly low density environment (as if there are any high density areas in 'straya haha)
I've been watching this channel for a few years. It's one of my favorite channels. I can't help but wonder where he'll be technologically 5 or 10 years from now. I honestly wouldn't be too surprised if he had electricity by then.
I remember I joined your channel when it was only around 300-400k subs loved each video , I remember telling all my friends who were sending me those asian guys , building some vaults, that I know where it is coming from primitive technology. You inspired people to make some entertainment content and you are inspiring people to get a knowledge , experience, skills, to feel a wilderness. You are incredible thank you a lot for your videos , for effort you make , for being there eith is ❤
Having watched this guy long enough, the ancient concept of alchemy and the mystical perception that people had of metal worker is starting to make total sense. These guys using earth and ash with fire and air to create shiny tools of superior quality. Mind blown
Suffice to say, DO NOT TRY THIS YOURSELF! Ash is remarkable insulation. Quite a few people have learned how to handle live coals without getting burned; they look for a thick layer of ash. Also, "fire walkers" employ a similar trick, only stepping in when the fire has burned down to mostly ash. Plus, it looks like he handled the slag lump by a protruding point - quite possibly a much cooler spot.
I wonder how much bigger would the furnace need to be to have the iron/steel coagulate in a single blob. Edit: Please also try to make a magnet by cold-hammering iron/steel in the same position and orientation for a long period of time. Once you made the first permanent magnet from iron, you would be able to smash the whole slag into small bits, and use the magnet to mroe easily extract the iron/steel from it.
There are Videos of metal smelting the old fashioned way and furnaces don't really need to be too big to get a decent bloom that is then hammered into usable metal
@@Slouworker I know there are, but it would still be interesting to see that being done on Primitive Technology. Edit: It could even function as a milestone for the channel, with a reliable method to get metal with relatively less effort (when compared to having to smash the hardened bloom and take the metal parts out one by one). Edit2: After the milestone, he could dabble in making lenses out of tree-sap resin and rosin (dried up tree-sap resin), and in making textiles for clothes. Both the transparent (even if slightly/lightly tinted) resin/rosin, and the textiles waterproofed with wax or oils, could be used for making greenhouses. That way, we could still get some content during the winter, if he starts now to make a stove with (thermal) mass to store the heat, like a rocket mass stove, or a vortex stove with the exhaust used like with a rocket-mass stove. To help with growing without needing much heating or any heating at all, it would help to have the greenhouse 1 meter (or yard, or 3 feet) deep, use the dugout dirt to make walls just as tall, then have the roof made from either waterproofed textiles or from cement sheet (mixing textile fibers with cement to make a flexible cement sheet, like the asbestos sheets but without asbestos and still being flammable) or even from transparent panes/panels/lenses. And with those done, he could try making other things in the winter, from the warmth of his clothes (which would likely require him to make felt-textiles) and the warmth of the greenhouse, for example using the lenses to make a microscope (i.e. a foldable microscope like those used in the textile industry or in schools), a telescope (to map out an area), and maybe even try to polish iron sheets to as close to a mirror finish as possible, which would allow to use those to make a telescope, or to use a tripod with each foot pushed up by another tripod to get a mirror above the tree line so the telescope could be used for mapping the area, and a set of ropes could be used to angle the mirror as needed. For the mirror finish, there might be the need for making a treadle which to rotate a felt-textile pillow with some clay on it and and an iron sheet in front of it, with the metal sheet being moved in a circle without rotating it to remove the rotation lines which would otherwise appear, and the whole mechanism could also be made to use a windmill or a waterwheel (if legal; in some parts of USA it's not legal).
IT FINALLY HAPPENED! 6:45 "Ash was scooped in with a spatula because it was still hot. MEANWHILE, iron bacteria was collected from the creek as an ore for the furnace to smelt" John has achieved mitosis and duplicated himself for higher productivity!
Awesome work again John. Thank you so much for the efforts you put in every time. I still regularly flick through your book which I highly recommend to anyone that enjoys your channel. Gutted the fan and blower broke but they have served you well my friend. All the best 👍🏼
Been watching your videos a while now and It always amazes me just how much wood you need to burn and clay you need to make in order to get anything done. It’s difficult to appreciate this when we live in a society where everything is done for us already
Have watched your videos for years and never get tired of them! I know it’s probably against the aim of the channel but I’d love to see a comparison of the internal temperatures in the different furnaces. Would be a really nice addition! Anyways, keep up the great content!
Really curious about the temperatures seen here (both in the hut and in the furnace). Also, a thermal camera would be quite useful in determining the most efficient furnace design!
bro building a normal camera out of reeds to film videos with must’ve taken him long enough, no way he’s going to make another one for different wavelengths!
Loving the videos, I'm not sure if you have already, but making a sieve in with different sizes could help the separation proces of iron and other substances! Just an idea, would be interesting to see how you would make it
I think with the amount of iron he's working with, manually picking out larger prills and panning the rest of the crushed slag like he did in the video is about as much as he can extract, I don't see a sieve helping much realistically
@@Sven_Hein I think it'd be acceptable if he found it himself but even if he has access to magnetite it's very rarely naturally magnetic from what I understand
@@Sven_Hein He could make a somewhat weak magnet with the iron he has. He'll first want to smelt it into a desirable rod-like shape. Once he has the tool a desired shape he will want to place the tool on a surface aligned north-south and hammer it ideally while red hot until the object cools making sure the object keeps its orientation throughout the process. The resulting rod will be a very weak magnet but might be strong enough to attract and separate iron sand. You could also make a compass in roughly the same manner. From what I understand, we're getting all the iron atoms to align with the Earth's magnetic field as best we can. Since we don't have anything to make electricity to fabricate a magnet we're instead using the Earth's inherent electromagnetic field to make one instead.
4:06 you can also make a refrigerator using this same basic idea, two pots within one, and add in a media in between that can be soaked with water. It works on an evaporative cooling principle. However, I wonder if you can perhaps use a tuer like in a furnace, which is connected to a seperate firebox, to use a faster than normal evaporation (without transfering heat of the fire itself, just hot air) onto your water soaked media, to create freezing temperatures, since the speed of evaporation will be greatly increased, will that dip below a temperature threshold, or just cool more rapidly, but bottom out in temperature drop?
I like how you think! Would it also work if you use the fire's draft to draw air across or through the insulating/cooling medium? Got some clay and a place to throw that together? 😀
as far as the blower is concerned, have you considered using a different style of spinning than the pull string? It seems to work well enough, but having a pulsing pattern to the air input mitigates the temperatures you can reach. If, instead of the pull string, you attached a stick at 90 degrees to the top of the blower rod, you could manually spin it at consistent speeds. there are different ways to build it, like putting a wheel of wood or clay on the top and using that instead of the 90 degree stick, or if you really wanted to amp it up you could arrange a pair of wheels with a belt to further make use of mechanical advantage(like with a bicycle gear system). this might make a really compelling video.
Super cool to see the progress on this. Bronze would probably have been a lot easier to make, but finding both the tin and copper would have likely been impossible.
Hello. I'm a big fan of your great videos. Are ashes really providing a good insulation? I think just air may be much better. But this may probably not provide enough structural support. In that case, why not use charcoal sticks in a radial shape between the 2 walls?
![What's in the box?! 1890s Safe [Restoration]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kugqGatwLDY/mqdefault.jpg)
The furnace behaved better than normal but could have done better as the blower broke during use and there was a period where I was fixing it when no air was being supplied (the fan also needed fixing on the fly). The furnace seems to consume charcoal faster than usual for the same effort when it is working which is good as it means it is getting hotter. 10 charges of ore and charcoal were used and 34 g of iron were made (the third best). The best smelts I've done produced 41g and 39 g for 6 charges and they can be seen in the iron knife video ( th-cam.com/video/dhW4XFGQB4o/w-d-xo.html ). I'll repair the blower and test it again some time. Thanks. (Edit: reminder to turn on captions )
Hello from Brazil 👋👋🇧🇷😁
What do you think of Fire itself? Do you look at it more like a tool or a relationship?
Your videos are(And I say this without ass kissing exaggeration) the highlight of any day that that you post. Thank you very much for sharing!
Nice going. I'm guessing that at some point we will see some primitive blacksmithing, which would be really nice.
Do you ever worry about the wood smoke? I always wonder why you never have a chimney or flue. Would a flue not allow you to retain more heat while removing the harmful gasses?
I hope everyone understands what a colossal flex (the good kind) his choice to include the fire starting in real time is. The fact he can do it in 30 seconds is a supreme demonstration of skill
He's been doing it for a decade now. It's second nature for him, I imagine. If this guy has his fire stick, he can get an ember going faster than I can find my Bic lighter.
I can do the hand drill, best I’ve done is a coal in 2 minutes… I’m completely blown away by how easy he made it took.
I’m struggling and sweaty to get it going 😂
There was smoke after the first time he got to the bottom of the stick.
@@stephenp4222 this guy gets it! best i have done is recieve blisters and failure, but from what ive seen, two minutes is good, 30 seconds is ...basically sorcery
He actually prefers to purely use a stick instead of with a bow that's how much of the goat he is
This dude is the goat
He invented a entire genre
And he doesn't fake it like other channels
He is the original!
@@Ody9 i know
@@Pinedal i know
That's what the inventor of genre means
@@vladimirlenin843 ahahahahah, the need to explain everything
One thing I love is that this channel silently demonstrates why humans came together. Doing all this alone takes such a long time, but with a group of people all doing these different things, the speed at which anything gets done does up so quickly.
It silently shows why humans don't come together and why it's better to fly solo.
@@thebugbouncer What, the fact it takes him several months to complete each project?
💯
@@Kaiimei 1. Diversity of skills proficiency required 2. Diverse background knowledge sufficient to make workable decisions without overmuch time spent on experimentation. 3. Economies of synchronization, many of these tasks are most efficient done continuously and/or in parallel, generally impossible alone.
@@thebugbouncer One person couldn't live like this dumbass. It shows exactly why humans have never lived alone, this guy doesn't raise animals, or plant/harvest crops. This is all he does and it takes up all his time. Humans don't survive on their own.
Don't forget to turn on subtitles! He explains what he is doing there
Thank you, almost forgot.
Well in all of them he explains
I like to watch once with out, once with! It is fun to see how close i got to the Whys and Hows
@alexdedich6377 when I found out about it, I had to go back and rewatch all his videos 😂
Thanks
This series really shows what an amazing accomplishment the iron age was. The amount of work for just the smallest bit or iron is insane.
I’ve heard that at the time, iron was a fair bit more common since we hadn’t used up all of the “easy” to get to stuff yet. Plus, there probably would’ve been a lot more than just one guy at a time going out to mine iron.
It still would’ve been really hard, but not quite as hard as it is to do solo nowadays.
Different geographic regions have different forms of iron. Some regions had a much easier time collecting raw ore. I believe similar reasoning is why glass work from ancient middle east is still unmatched, they had bountiful silica sand so it was easy to collect resources for glass blowing.
It was significantly easier than what he is doing. For one thing one person didn't do everything. One person would retrieve the high quality ore. Another would make charcoal. And someone else would process the ore.
@@Imaboss8ball I’d imagine that it wouldn’t be much easier on a per person basis, since they’d still put in as much work as they could. But collectively it’d be easier to accumulate large amounts of iron
most folks back then didn't get ore from iron bacteria. Basically all other sources of iron are easier to work than that.
It's exciting to see him collect the iron prills, it builds up my anticipation to see what he's gonna make out of them regardless of the size of the finished product
An airplane
I'm thinking fish hook. Maybe a blade of some kind ?
Sort them by size and regularity, find a suitable bearing case material, a sturdy axle …
I really, really hope he tries crucible steel with whatever amount he collects. Quality carbon steel from creek mud by hand would be amazing to watch.
A knife is always a priority it serves as a tool and also a weapon.
Man I'm so happy this dude decided to get back to regularly posting videos. This truly is one of my most favorite channels ever.
TBH I'm glad his TV show didn't pan out because I know they would push him to change the format or to cheat like so many other fake "primitive" channels out there. Now he can continue what he was doing unimpeded and we get to enjoy it.
@@cptn_chromo3189honestly though if he could get just one friend or a son out there to help him I think it would be an amazing and welcome addition to the channel! I feel like work would be finisheduch quicker and with less effort from John so he doesn't possibly get burned out (no pun intended) or lose patience while working. And if his friend happened to be a Smith or metal expert who could add knowledge to the forging and processing techniques, it would make for higher quality products that would just amazing the audience even further. But obviously that isn't his style, he is a solo worker and I respect that, but aan can dream, can't he? 😅
This man is gonna be in the steel age in a few years at the rate hes progressing through the tech tree
He could have posted an update though, even just a text message. Instead he just fucked off without a peep. I thought he died or something. Only found out he was still alive cause someone reached out to him and commented under his last video. Didn't even bother to do it himself.
@free_spirit1 Such emotional pain. This isn’t the first time you’ve been hurt is it. Did you catch her in the act or…?
It's always a good day when Primitive Technology uploads
Second that!
One of only two channels where if possible, I drop what I'm doing and watch as soon as I see there's a new video.
Not really a good day for me, i just watched that video of the cartel flaying a guys face while he was alive, traumatized me for life
That's truth.
@MikkoMaggieMore Error 404
I will never get bored watching John in the wild do for the "first time" what our ancestors did thousands of years ago. I'm amazed for two reasons, one for the amount of time and effort John puts into doing this experiment, and two on how our ancestors understood all of these passages, especially for the iron making, just by trial and errors. Really amazing. Thanks John I really appreciate your dedication.
You can increase your yield by starting out with smelting some of the slag from previous smelts, to create an initial slag bath for the new iron to form in.
Yes I did a smelt that recycled the slag and it produces a bit of iron as is. The slag would make a good flux. Thanks.
@@primitivetechnology9550 so you have made a metal knife , recently most of your videos are furnace uprgrades and such Whats you plan for the metal? I’m so excited to see the advancements whilst staying primative
some sort of flux, industry uses limestone , crushed shells could work as well I suppose :)
@@mysticvirgo9318 iirc he tried using crushed shells and it decreased his yield significantly
@@primitivetechnology9550How do yo know 9 double-handfuls of coal was ~1.5Kg?How'd you measure it?
It just amazes me how much your technique changes and improves over the years. When you were creating the furnace I was taking careful note of how you shaped and manipulated the clay and the lack of effort you seemed to be putting into it. You made it look like a simple and trivial affair. You lines, distancing, and shaping were spot on as if you had done it thousands of times before. When compared to you much older videos it is clearly obvious that are constantly improving.
Keep up the great work. I love watching it.
The fact Primitive Tech has been doing YT for 8 years and still has fun doing it shows he wont retire anytime soon, appreciate the dedication
I mean, he's got a lot of history to catch up with :D
I see you under every video now
he's technically just hit the iron age so he's got plenty of material to work with. :D
SPAM BOT
What no way I still remember his first videos he got millions of subscribers within a couple of months or so
I feel like it’s safe to say that this guy is a one man village at this point, he goes around to his different structures doing all the different jobs that would normally be done by different people all by himself, it’s very impressive
David Attenborough is going to get a call about a long lost Australian village someone found out in the woods
that’s actually a very cool perspective. I always liked to imagine my ancestors doing this stuff, i never thought of a whole village of people doing all of this
Imagine this work being done by 10-20 people, while other 5 hunt for food. It’s awesome to see how and why humanity chose to form small communities and benefit from team work.
While recording my lazy ass to watch, supreme content
Funny, that's exactly the thought I had watching his smelting setup! Like the creations of an entire community, or a family passing it on! Now a village of Johns, that would be a sight to behold!
Very nice design. I can imagine you adding a tall removable chimney on top of the furnace, bringing in a big flat stone anvil, increasing the size of your fan, and eventually forging iron into steel. I love seeing the processes evolve.
Every time you post a video, I get so excited to watch it. It is so soothing, and melts my stress away. Thank you for the amazing content!
Well technically cast iron is a super high carbon steel, im actually not sure why its absorbing so much carbon to begin with, his bloomaries never seem to behave like normal ones, like he is reaching the peak temperatures, and he is using a relatively quality ore. I think he needs to add some silica to the ore to act as a flux, then he should expect some higher quality blooms
@@folsomforge6232well the wood fire it’s cooking in adds a lot of carbon
@@folsomforge6232well normal bloomeries dont use iron bacteria waste so maybe that's making the difference, zhey probably do more bulk of ore too
@@markd.s.8625 there is a huge variety in the types of ore used, bog iron, magnetite, other kinds of stone bound ore, the iron bacteria seems to be a similar quality to bog iron (the best one to use)
@@kadeskorni296 he didnt always do an initial roast but it still produced cast iron (excessive carbon) maybe he is overdoing the airflow and fully melting the iron, that often results in unusable steel and cast iron in regular bloomaries. To be clear im not sure nor do i have any actual experience with bloomaries, i just did a lot of research in what can go right or wrong
Never imagine how seeing rusty spots would be satisfying! There will always be slag, but if you cover the very bottom of the furnace with that “clay” based in ash and water only? Maybe it would prevent some silica from get smelted into the result. Really nice work!!
Much appreciated. The slag and iron mass sort of sits on a layer of unburnt charcoal that doesn't get air so that the slag and iron don't actually touch the floor of the furnace. I could try it though, it might help insulate if from the ground beneath the furnace. Thanks.
Hi John, can you make glasses (like window or bottle) out of sand? Thank you in advance!@@primitivetechnology9550
I was thinking about placing the ore in a stone recepticle. Seperating it from the charcoal. But creating such a stone "cup" in primitive conditions would require a metal chizel i think.
I've seen you make a friction fire countless times, but this close-in angle was an incredible shot. I've never seen it done that way! Being that close to the action really shows your expertise.
It's always amazing.
My favorite part was when the forge went FWHOM after the first charge was loaded. Thanks for continuing this adventure, I'm really excited for the progress you're making.
Using wood ash as an insulator is very old school. I did that with a rocket type stove a long time ago and it worked great!
The guy is saving up enough iron to finally move out of the stone age. Old school indeed...
I was about to ask... How come wood ash is an insulator? What are its properties?
@@nik9094 Low thermal conductivity, it takes a lot of time to heat and being in that comprissed space doesn't let any heat go to the sides and it all converges upwards where you want it for better oxigen consumption, faster heating and higher temperatures
@@Zendvious Interesting! Thanks :)
@nik9094 Air is the real insulator, the ash traps it in thousands of tiny pockets that stop heat conducting or convecting away from the inner furnace.
It's also as burnt as it's ever going to get, so the heat won't degrade it.
From 1:40 to 2:14 with the hand drill has to be one of your best composed and shot friction-fire sequences, John. I could just sit and watch the ember slowly growing. Something about that simple shot just made my evening. Thanks.
Same, i watched this sequence several times, also apreciate that you always include repetitions of processes you demonstrated before, it is fascinating to follow along with your experimentation an gradual improvements. Thank You!
a literal master at making fire with his bare hands. I'm in a wheelchair I would tear the shit outta my hands doing that.
I don't know how long I've been watching your videos but I'm amazed every time. I especially love the recently added step-by-step fast-track parts that show the entire process.
Much appreciated. Yes the timelapse is something new I've been trying that helps shorten long processes into viewable segments. Thanks.
That moment of ignition at 9:50 is amazing.
Cool
omg yes i was amazed
Me too
It’s like watching someone advancing and growing in skill in real time, amazing.
he's gotten so fast with the hand drill, it's nuts
Love how this channel went from this dude's cool hobby to applied archeology. Wonder how many paper's he's been cited in so far.
One thing I have always liked about this channel is the amount of attention to detail on the little things, while not staying too long for each action. Its just enough to show us that you're genuinely putting in the effort while not being too much as to drag on the video. Plus, the lack of scale helps me believe that all this is genuine and not one of those fake hole in the ground pool videos.
Yes, and the fact he doesn't cut and shut each section. John shows the whole sequence unlike others.
yep
I love seeing the process of trying different things and discarding what doesn't work as well. Manual panning instead of the washboard device because it's simpler, making the fire without the bow because it's unnecessary, experimenting with various ways to improve iron yield. It's a fun journey to follow you on.
He also never throws anything away. Everything is recycled.
The fact that the nuggets are dramatically increasing in size is a great indicator
Shame you lost some smelting time due to equipment breakage, but the new furnace output looks promising. Creating some backup parts is probably in order now, especially with the amount of usage they see. Looking forward to the iron tool you'll construct once you gather enough prills from the forge.
hoping for frying pan
My guess would be some form of a axe
@@Pedasjmatoo brittle
The smart choice would be something that improves the efficiency of getting more iron.
He is basically skipping over bronze age tech in favor of iron, so it's understandably slow.
@@VME-BradTo make bronze, you need access to copper and tin. Iron is available in situ, so it makes sense to go for that.
Mini scorpion at 13:38
This is the first time in my TH-cam history that I have actually seen the wood dust accumulating with a fire drill. Most well done!
In addition, these iron-melting videos never get old. 😍
Creating iron from muck is magic indeed. Magic of the ancients. I like that you don’t “cheat” and use ore, you’re doing it truly primitive. As always, top notch YT content. Now I have to go back and watch them all again, for hundredth time.
I’m pretty sure iron was (relatively) plentiful enough during the Iron Age that nobody would’ve even thought of using that funny orange muck to make metal when they could use rocks instead. But I’m not a historian, that’s just what I’ve heard other people say.
He doesn't use ore because he simply doesn't have any nearby. His only sources of iron are iron bacteria and magnetite sand. He experimented with washing the sand to extract iron, but i assume it required more effort than iron bacteria method for the same result
I prefer the bog standard approach of bog iron.
@oberonpanopticon This was how the vikings got a lot of their iron. They didn't have iron mines for the most part but plenty of bog iron.
The ancients wouldn't have used muck. They'd've used a high iron content naturally occurring ore like magnetite, hematite or similar.
I think it's important to note just how much effort and time have gone into getting just that much iron. It's a couple handfuls over a year. Just demonstrates how big a game changer it is having even a dozen people in a community to do the various tasks needed. Also, the difference it makes relying on bacteria vs mining a vein.
Or, eventually, obtaining slaves and establishing an extractive empire to get the resources more efficiently
Can't wait to see what you use the iron for. Will feel like a huge milestone for sure
I'm hoping for a crude Knife, it would be a huge step up for its uses, that, or an axe if he can get enough iron. I would prefer he climb the technology tree step by step though, so a knife with wooden handle.
@@icedanilzation A knife or a shovel would be the best options I think. He doesn't seem to take too long to gather wood without an axe
Im hoping he makes an Iron Broadsword
He made sort of a proto knife before so that would be my guess. That or some other kind of tool, something that would overall make work easier or possible. Metal hammer for more metalworking? Probably not, but it's a possibility. Metal axe? Maybe. Upgrade from the original stone hatchet.
Probably a bladed tool with a better edge than the cast iron knife he made.
This man picked up an iron chunk that was still hot enough to make water sizzle and he didn't even flinch. He's built different.
Looks like he grabbed it by a protruding point, so that spot may have been cooler than the rest of the lump. Also it was still covered in ash, giving his hands some insulation.
Just a reminder, that water sizzle WAS THE NEXT DAY
Maybe my man has worked food service. Hot hands are something else.
Every time he smelts iron he cooks the callouses on his hand a little more
@@technocolossus i used to hang out in and sometimes work at a hookah lounge. grabbing red hot coals between thumb and finger was nothing after a while.
Вот оно, живое потверждение человеческого гения. Где бы человек ни был, он всегда может добиться своих целей. Одно удовольствие наблюдать за таким трудом.
That sudden flash of fire at 9:52 was neat!
2-Step Furnace
Yeah!
It's a super cool way of demonstrating the actual mechanics of fire: Carbon burns partially, releasing carbon monoxide gas, which then (with enough additional heat and oxygen) burns in the air above the fuel, giving that all-so-familiar flame shape we love.
After all these years, I still feel like the thing Jon is most proud of is his ability to make fire from sticks.
And in fairness, considering this is the skill that turned humans from animals onto people, I get why.
Man casually recreates hundreds of years of human technological innovations in the span of a few years, and proceeds to post it on a social media site. Good work, love the content, really satisfying to watch!
This is the channel I'm most facinated by on youtube. Others educate me more on topics I am interested in or are more entertaining but none is as facinating as this one.
I love the timelapse addition to the newer videos, and I want to make very clear that what this channel gives me more than any other is passion.
This passion project is inspiring.
For me I am very curious about a particular question: If society was torn down, but we still kept access to knowledge, how long would it take to get back to where we are today? When you watch this video, you realize that the answer is only a few generations. To get from hunter-gatherer to digital citizen took 10's of thousands of years, but if it all burns down tomorrow, assuming we are able to preserve access to knowledge in books and whatnot, we will be back to the silicon age in 100 years or less. I don't know why I find the question interesting, but I do. Like you I am fascinated by it, but maybe for slightly different reasons.
@@mckenziekeith7434 that's pretty much the story of Dr stone. An anime about a kid who's a walking encyclopedia in a world hit by some mysterious event and he wants to go back to space in his lifetime. And he has to build back up from nothing. It isn't super realistic but you might enjoy it.
@@mckenziekeith7434 i too find this a fascinating thought experiment. The first few decades would be brutal, though..
It is fascinating to realise, how much laber goes into a little bit of iron.. good thing it can easily be reused and has accumulated over time. Nowadays, every person on Earth (especyialy in global north) has easy acces and use of many kilogramms of the stuff!
@@mckenziekeith7434 not just knowledge, but also resources. there will still be plenty of destroyed or even still usable objects and materials around, and if you need to make something, it is way easier to melt down an already refined copper cable instead of raw copper ore for example. if it was somehow only people and knowledge that got preserved then it would probably take more than 100 years, but that is not really a realistic scenario anyway
Your ability to not get burned or flinch from heat while putting the charcoal and ore on the furnace (cause I know that had to be very hot) is amazing
things I would do to improve iron yield on your design:
1. make the air come in at an angle, so that it spirals out making it more efficient
2. have some sort of crucible at the bottom
3. let it be hot for longer so that the iron goes to the bottom and the slag to the top
Great recommendation regarding the spiral.
What is the slag? Is it of any use? He sure does seem to get a lot of it.
And is it possible to put it into a crucible at the bottom at the start to keep it refined vs. mixing in with the charcol?
Also why does he mix in the powder so slowly?
I'm full of questions!
@@abcqer555I'm not an expert, but from the few videos I've been able to find on the subject over the past few months, I believe introducing the ore and coal in smaller batches helps it heat more evenly.
As for what the slag is, it's everything from the ore that wasn't iron, mixed with carbon from the charcoal. Some methods also involve adding a flux like silica (a main part of sand) or borax (I think?), which causes the heated slag (again, anything besides the metal) to become more fluid, allowing the iron to form into bigger pills (I think). This also causes the resulting slag to become slightly more glass like which I think is pretty cool.
Do you think that a gear-spun blower powered by a turning wheel would allow for hotter temperatures since the air flow would be much more even?
@@AeyakS A gear spun blower would increase the gearing and allow the blower to spin faster. This would push more air (with it oxygen) which would burn the fuel faster and raise the temp. The ashes were used as insulation to increase the temp by reducing losses. I don't think air flow stability is much of a factor
Also the slag seems like it could be used as an insulator, its structure resembles that of a cellular cinder block. Maybe mix the slag with mortar and cast it to the furnace casing? It'll probably help the structure last longer too.
The ecstatic joy at the collective work of hundreds if not thousands of hours coming to fruition has to be amazing, though it would be hard to explain to someone that it looks like a bunch of pebbles in a pot, but still, so cool. I can't wait to see more.
Most of the focus so far has (rightly) been on the smelting process, but I'm also curious if there are ways to encourage more or faster growth of the "ore" bacteria.
Another great video!
Yeah like try to farm it somehow? Or perhaps just ensure that the places it likes to grow are as fertile as possible or whatever.
Minecraft Automatic Iron Bacteria Farm (NO REDSTONE!) [1.79.2]
@@capertillar4634why do I have a feeling this might happen lmao
@@capertillar4634 when you put several villagers in the middle of a lake, they build an iron golem, but since they cant actually do it the iron just gets spread around in the water
im pretty sure he already concentrated it in a part of the stream. and put rocks around to make a slow point in the water flow so it can collect and grow.
Among all the channels on TH-cam, i think this guy's work is respected and admired by absolutely everyone
Wow I actually have to hand it to you. With the upgraded kiln, plus insulation your yield has gone way up. It's quite surprising. Especially the size of the shot pellets as well. Very impressive. Here's to figuring out comprehensive smelting soon! Soon you'll be casting iron like a madman!
Even more of a madman if he starts puddling it. I only know of larger scale examples from history, so I'm not sure if that technique scales down to this scale if limited to primitive/manual means or not. I imagine his next step is going to be making a crucible so he can do one melt of all his collected prills and such.
Soon: “Building train tracks to better transport wood ash to the hut.
@@ParameterGrenze yay another rail gauge standard for Australia! Oh joy!
I mean Australia has some of the largest iron ore deposits in the world 😂 the ground is litterally red because of the iron. I don't think he needs to move countries. Maybe states
@@Jeremy-wh4di I think he said somewhere that there is no iron ore were he does his videos, so he resorts to bacteria. This is pretty impressive actually.
incredible amount of energy needed to extract the metal, I cant help wondering how long these skills took to learn and refine to produce a cutting edge in history. great video once again. thank you.
Historically speaking, you wouldn't usually be extracting Iron from bacteria, but from ore deposits found in stone, like hematite. PT simply doesn't have any of that locally to work with. Essentially he chose to enter the Iron age on hard mode.
Copper and bronze had been utilized for hundreds of years before iron became widespread, and those metals are much easier to work with. Iron smelting was a gradual process, but definently still required a ton of effort over many generations.
Although this guy is alone and doesnt have access to good quality ore, he only has iron bacteria and a bit of magnetite sand.
@@scottmacgregor3444ironically that is where you are wrong. It wasn't till later into the iron age that they began mining iron ore, a lot of it came from bog iron or iron sand to begin with
@@SilvaDreams Interesting. Is bog iron the same as iron bacteria?
@@scottmacgregor3444 Yes. Mineral processes with the help of bacteria concentrate iron into little nodules. The nodules are carefully harvested so the bog can keep producing them. Iron as a renewable resource - crazy, huh?
I have so much respect for this guy because he’s the only person in this content genre that doesn’t fake their videos, and he never has
i would love to see an uncut video of the whole iron firing process - it's already so relaxing
Primitive ASMR
Actually a great idea ^
That might take 10 hours long but I love it LOL
@@MrHeat48 Maybe not that long, lol. Says in the video this smelt took 1.5 hours
Got to love the effort and dedication here. He's always evolving and upping the ante. Trying to take that next leap. Leave this guy in the woods for long enough and soon enough he'll fly out of there on his personal spaceship.
found the factorio engineer.
One of the few channels I have notifications for because you never disappoint. Keep up the great work!
Don't take it the wrong way but your videos are perfect for going to bed. I love your content and I am always interested to see what you built this time, it's very nice knowing you stay true to pacing, noise levels and action in your shots across all videos, enabling me to really calm down. Thanks for always sharing your hobby with us!
I agree, they're very calm and relaxing.
Hey can't help that it's calm and relaxing. He has no need for any pointless music anywhere that would just detract from what he is sharing.
It's the lack of talking, whilst still being fascinating.
I love how you always add the fire starting process with the sticks. I'd be interested to see how you get any residual iron from the stag. Don't forget to save the ash if you dismantle that furnace! You can use it for more wood ash clay.
Love the new furnace setup. Great idea using ash as an insulator.
There's something so relaxing about watching you building these primitive technologies
I empathize with you so much during this process. I'm really into diemaking as a hobbyist machinist and it feels like a Sisyphean task sometimes. Great to see you are making progress. There's always improvements to be made. Some day you'll nail down the last bug in your system and you'll be making iron like nobodys business.
This is a post made by a bot.
@@komicsreviewer8505 No that's just how I talk
@@komicsreviewer8505ChatGPT gets its grammar and capitalization right.
@@hamburgerhamburgerv2 Who do u think did 9/11??
I swear waiting for the next primitive technology upload is the most torturous thing I have to live with but the wait is always worth it. wonderful design. I'd love to have my own land to dabble in this sort of thing some day in the future
Better than his 2 year break though, that was hard
@@billycrooks8401 oh my lord yeah that was terrible, I suppose he has come back stronger though
@@j0hnno for sure can't wait for iron age
Thanks for this upload. This is not just an excelent step by step method for the practical procedure.
This is also a history lesson which brings insight to how much effort man had to put in, just to get a small piece of refined material.
Thanks for doing this over the years. Honestly one of the best channels of all of youtube.
Peace from Sweden
I never skip the ads on your videos. You deserve every penny.
Man I've been watching your videos for over 5 years now and you never cease to amaze me with what you do. Thank you for always providing great content and a chance to learn new things!
Great to see you putting out a stream of videos again. So many people find watching your content to be a real Zen time; no technology distractions, the natural settings and always a great learning experience in your content.
Mind you, in comparison to your pre-Covid videos, it does look like someone was in a good paddock during the lockdowns. 😄
There is a certain irony in saying no technology distractions, we are watching a guy on a technology device re-create the technologies of our ancestors. But, it is undoubtedly more connected to the natural environment.
Just curious, what makes you think he was with horses during any lockdown? I would guess he might live so far away from dense populations that he didn't need to do any real lockdown. I would never ask for such details but just a thought.
@@maxxtubing 1. He has modern house and live like regular person when not making videos 2. He also, during his hiatus, had a TV Deal being made or something. I don't know if it has been aired, cable exclusive or what.
@@victoriazero8869he has a modern house... on the property we see here. He does live in a fairly low density environment (as if there are any high density areas in 'straya haha)
@@maxxtubing
It's an expression we use here in Australian. He would know that I'm making good-natured fun of the extra kilos he's put on.
I've been watching this channel for a few years. It's one of my favorite channels. I can't help but wonder where he'll be technologically 5 or 10 years from now. I honestly wouldn't be too surprised if he had electricity by then.
Keep it up!
Will do, Much appreciated!
Thanks!
Love ys videos :)
Thanks, Glad you like them!
I remember I joined your channel when it was only around 300-400k subs loved each video , I remember telling all my friends who were sending me those asian guys , building some vaults, that I know where it is coming from primitive technology. You inspired people to make some entertainment content and you are inspiring people to get a knowledge , experience, skills, to feel a wilderness. You are incredible thank you a lot for your videos , for effort you make , for being there eith is ❤
Having watched this guy long enough, the ancient concept of alchemy and the mystical perception that people had of metal worker is starting to make total sense.
These guys using earth and ash with fire and air to create shiny tools of superior quality.
Mind blown
That fire coming to life at 9:50 gives me life
I saw your clip from 6-7 years ago. And now I'm back to watching the thank you clip again. I really miss you
I'm always thrilled when this channel updates. These videos are so fascinating, and also so soothing.
Yes, very soothing. I never watch these with subtitles, for me it ruins the experience.
This man's hands much be enchanted with fire resistance
For real, he touched the slag and then put water on it after and it was hot enough to make the water steam 😮
he picks up small pieces of charcoal from around a glowing fiery furnace to toss them in , he must have teflon hands
@@carlazuz1201 The water scene was THE NEXT DAY bro
Suffice to say, DO NOT TRY THIS YOURSELF!
Ash is remarkable insulation. Quite a few people have learned how to handle live coals without getting burned; they look for a thick layer of ash. Also, "fire walkers" employ a similar trick, only stepping in when the fire has burned down to mostly ash.
Plus, it looks like he handled the slag lump by a protruding point - quite possibly a much cooler spot.
@@Mark-dc1su but he still touched it before he put water on it homie
You are the ONLY channel I will turn on captions for.
I wonder how much bigger would the furnace need to be to have the iron/steel coagulate in a single blob. Edit: Please also try to make a magnet by cold-hammering iron/steel in the same position and orientation for a long period of time. Once you made the first permanent magnet from iron, you would be able to smash the whole slag into small bits, and use the magnet to mroe easily extract the iron/steel from it.
There are Videos of metal smelting the old fashioned way and furnaces don't really need to be too big to get a decent bloom that is then hammered into usable metal
@@Slouworker I know there are, but it would still be interesting to see that being done on Primitive Technology. Edit: It could even function as a milestone for the channel, with a reliable method to get metal with relatively less effort (when compared to having to smash the hardened bloom and take the metal parts out one by one).
Edit2: After the milestone, he could dabble in making lenses out of tree-sap resin and rosin (dried up tree-sap resin), and in making textiles for clothes. Both the transparent (even if slightly/lightly tinted) resin/rosin, and the textiles waterproofed with wax or oils, could be used for making greenhouses. That way, we could still get some content during the winter, if he starts now to make a stove with (thermal) mass to store the heat, like a rocket mass stove, or a vortex stove with the exhaust used like with a rocket-mass stove.
To help with growing without needing much heating or any heating at all, it would help to have the greenhouse 1 meter (or yard, or 3 feet) deep, use the dugout dirt to make walls just as tall, then have the roof made from either waterproofed textiles or from cement sheet (mixing textile fibers with cement to make a flexible cement sheet, like the asbestos sheets but without asbestos and still being flammable) or even from transparent panes/panels/lenses.
And with those done, he could try making other things in the winter, from the warmth of his clothes (which would likely require him to make felt-textiles) and the warmth of the greenhouse, for example using the lenses to make a microscope (i.e. a foldable microscope like those used in the textile industry or in schools), a telescope (to map out an area), and maybe even try to polish iron sheets to as close to a mirror finish as possible, which would allow to use those to make a telescope, or to use a tripod with each foot pushed up by another tripod to get a mirror above the tree line so the telescope could be used for mapping the area, and a set of ropes could be used to angle the mirror as needed.
For the mirror finish, there might be the need for making a treadle which to rotate a felt-textile pillow with some clay on it and and an iron sheet in front of it, with the metal sheet being moved in a circle without rotating it to remove the rotation lines which would otherwise appear, and the whole mechanism could also be made to use a windmill or a waterwheel (if legal; in some parts of USA it's not legal).
always great to see another video from you John!
IT FINALLY HAPPENED!
6:45 "Ash was scooped in with a spatula because it was still hot. MEANWHILE, iron bacteria was collected from the creek as an ore for the furnace to smelt"
John has achieved mitosis and duplicated himself for higher productivity!
Always amazing. Such a thrill to watch, yet so calming.
Quel boulot ! Quelle patience ! Tu forces le respect ! Merci c est très intéressant 👍👍👍
Amazing how much the improved heat management raised the yield and size of the iron nuggets. Outstanding video, again!
Always great to see the notification of a new video of your appear! And nice to see the iron stockpile growing!
Awesome work again John. Thank you so much for the efforts you put in every time. I still regularly flick through your book which I highly recommend to anyone that enjoys your channel. Gutted the fan and blower broke but they have served you well my friend. All the best 👍🏼
Been watching your videos a while now and It always amazes me just how much wood you need to burn and clay you need to make in order to get anything done. It’s difficult to appreciate this when we live in a society where everything is done for us already
Have watched your videos for years and never get tired of them! I know it’s probably against the aim of the channel but I’d love to see a comparison of the internal temperatures in the different furnaces. Would be a really nice addition! Anyways, keep up the great content!
That moment when the top burst into flames made me want to see it through a thermal camera.
Yes, it would be cool to see some modern tech involved just to show how impressive his primitive stuff is.
Really curious about the temperatures seen here (both in the hut and in the furnace). Also, a thermal camera would be quite useful in determining the most efficient furnace design!
Gonna take him a while to build a thermal camera out of sticks and clay, but I have complete confidence in him.
Using a thermal camera would be a far stretch from... primitive technology. But yeah, I concur. Would be interesting to see those temps.
bro building a normal camera out of reeds to film videos with must’ve taken him long enough, no way he’s going to make another one for different wavelengths!
Well the furnace is at least 1500C. That's the required melting temp of iron. So I'd imagine the hut was pretty damn hot lol.
@@Scottx125Productions That's like the normal temps during summer in australia
That was frigging amazing. Also, as living archeology, gives us real insight into what our ancestors acheived
Really cool furnace idea. Very interested in seeing how it does next time.
God I love this channel. I feel invested in each and everyone of those iron pellets. Keep up the good work!
It's men like this that give me hope in humanity's survival of cataclysms. Great content.
Your creativity is INSANE ❤
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@officialII Bro is spamming his useless videos
Loving the videos, I'm not sure if you have already, but making a sieve in with different sizes could help the separation proces of iron and other substances! Just an idea, would be interesting to see how you would make it
I think panning it, like gold, would probably be the only way of doing that. Easy to make ridged pans from the clay.
I think with the amount of iron he's working with, manually picking out larger prills and panning the rest of the crushed slag like he did in the video is about as much as he can extract, I don't see a sieve helping much realistically
I mean a primitive magnet from some magnetite ore might work, too but that seems like cheating.
@@Sven_Hein I think it'd be acceptable if he found it himself but even if he has access to magnetite it's very rarely naturally magnetic from what I understand
@@Sven_Hein He could make a somewhat weak magnet with the iron he has. He'll first want to smelt it into a desirable rod-like shape. Once he has the tool a desired shape he will want to place the tool on a surface aligned north-south and hammer it ideally while red hot until the object cools making sure the object keeps its orientation throughout the process. The resulting rod will be a very weak magnet but might be strong enough to attract and separate iron sand. You could also make a compass in roughly the same manner.
From what I understand, we're getting all the iron atoms to align with the Earth's magnetic field as best we can. Since we don't have anything to make electricity to fabricate a magnet we're instead using the Earth's inherent electromagnetic field to make one instead.
Just finished watching all your videos from start to finish.
It took me a couple of days & it was very enjoyable!!
Thankyou!!🤗
meditative and educational as always 💛
O melhor de todos. Parabéns! Seus vídeos são incríveis!
Always amazing to see how much progress can be made not by having the necessary implements, but by having the knowledge of the necessary process.
4:06 you can also make a refrigerator using this same basic idea, two pots within one, and add in a media in between that can be soaked with water. It works on an evaporative cooling principle. However, I wonder if you can perhaps use a tuer like in a furnace, which is connected to a seperate firebox, to use a faster than normal evaporation (without transfering heat of the fire itself, just hot air) onto your water soaked media, to create freezing temperatures, since the speed of evaporation will be greatly increased, will that dip below a temperature threshold, or just cool more rapidly, but bottom out in temperature drop?
I like how you think! Would it also work if you use the fire's draft to draw air across or through the insulating/cooling medium?
Got some clay and a place to throw that together? 😀
I think he films his videos in the rain forest in Australia, evaporative cooling isn't as effective in such a humid environment.
@@rajvinder89 yes, you are right, but with additional (forced) evaporation I th8ink that can be overcome.
Siempre es un gusto ver estos videos.
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as far as the blower is concerned, have you considered using a different style of spinning than the pull string? It seems to work well enough, but having a pulsing pattern to the air input mitigates the temperatures you can reach. If, instead of the pull string, you attached a stick at 90 degrees to the top of the blower rod, you could manually spin it at consistent speeds. there are different ways to build it, like putting a wheel of wood or clay on the top and using that instead of the 90 degree stick, or if you really wanted to amp it up you could arrange a pair of wheels with a belt to further make use of mechanical advantage(like with a bicycle gear system). this might make a really compelling video.
Man , i think he accepted this advice, in one of his new videos he did exactly that (!?)
Yeah, I saw that video and thought the same thing!
Super cool to see the progress on this.
Bronze would probably have been a lot easier to make, but finding both the tin and copper would have likely been impossible.
That moment of ignition at 9:50 is amazing.. That moment of ignition at 9:50 is amazing..
Your creativity is absolutely fire!
Hello. I'm a big fan of your great videos. Are ashes really providing a good insulation?
I think just air may be much better. But this may probably not provide enough structural support. In that case, why not use charcoal sticks in a radial shape between the 2 walls?
Senhor, você é incrível ❤
I have seen each one of these videos at least 3 dozen times, they are so peaceful and relaxing and I use them to fall asleep now