Mike Blue, Randall Graham, Ric Furrer, making steel at Larry Harley's in May 2006. Lecture and Demonstration. Filmed by Christopher Price of The Tidewater Forge. 9 minutes.
I was born and raised in a steel town (Youngstown), lived but 2 miles from the mills until age 8, my father and all his friends all worked in the mills through high school and college. My grandfather was a boiler engineer his entire life for one of the mills. From all that, did I know anything about how steel was made? No. In this video alone, I've learned more about how steel is actually made. Thank you!
I greatly enjoy videos such as this that give a detailed description in everyday lingo. They really come in handy as light, but educational material for friends with a bit of interest in the subject.
This country needs more people like this. There's reading about something (most college) and then there's trying something (the rest of college) and then there's craftsmen/women and artisans that perfect processes through repetition, and are confident enough to share their knowledge with others.
Just discovered this video, I think I have found my new love. Thanks for making this. So awesome to watch how this is done. I will be looking for a class and group that does this kind of thing in my area.
I'm not interested in producing steel for my foundry but it's really nice to get an understanding of the process . I'd loved to hang out with these cool guys to do this tho! Nice video!!!
Looks like a lot of hard, dirty work. But at the end of the process when you finally finish the last bit of grinding and polishing on your totally home-made knife it must be satisfying. Great vid.
You guys did a great job. It takes hard work and dedication to do it the old fashion way. Ive been thinking about picking up blacksmithing as a hobby so learning how to forge my own bars will be really helpful. Great video, keep doing what youre doing!
Holy hell, your voice is so reminiscent of my late grandfather's voice, the comment on Virginia boys pushed that feeling even farther. I know it wasn't in any way your intention when you made this video but thanks, really gave me a good feeling.
Christopher Price My mistake, thanks for the response. I somehow missed it in my notifications. Probably going to start another binge on your videos. (: Thanks again for the upload.
One addition I'd like to see is how to find Iron Ore. i.e. where to find it, what does it look like and any visible signs that would help identify the Iron Ore. Outside of that, Great video on how to make steel from Iron Ore.. Thanks for the upload!! :)
I have one katana made of Tamahagane and the rest are medium carbon steel blades thank you for posting this video I love it. it has me want to make my own steel and forge my own.
That may very well have been one of the most awesome videos I've ever watched on TH-cam..... The ingenuity of the human spirit at it's finest. Creating as we were created to do. Thank you Sir.
A TURBULENCE as in a "rocket nozzle" : absolutely brilliant! (I speak in addition to the slow vehicle movement, part t. and no hard schedules, The Box club, publishing on waste receptacles and cans with saying such at stores). AGA9N, BRILLIANT.... PTL Almighty for you on this!
This is one of those things I always wanted to get into. Smelting, SCUBA, and flying a helicopter. Well, I may have to be satisfied with just SCUBA but I want you to know I really appreciate this look into smelting the old way. Thanks so much for taking the time.
Awesome video! It's enlightening and informative, I really appreciate it. I love learning this kind of stuff. I think it's really important normal people learn how to make things on their own. It's the only real way to have any sort of independence in the world.
Awesome video. Nice to see Ric Furrer in a more layed back setting like this, and of course the awesome bloom. I'll be making a small scale tatara this winter hopefully, and this has helped a little bit (The sacrificial carbon for the bloom to expand.). Wish I was there.
I'm a metallurgist..they built a primative furnace. They put in iron ore (FeO, etc) and charcoal (C) and let it combust. Air entered through the tuyeres (tubes at the bottom that they were seem cleaning out) that then reacted with the charcoal to form CO and CO2, which heated up the iron ore and allowed FeO, etc to break up into cast iron/steel (depending on exact carbon content) and slag (SiO2, MnO, etc). For more into check out NOVA s35e05 "Making of a Samuri Sword"
Roasting and crushing increases the surface area. As Dr. Blue mentions, it's hot CO gas doing the work, so the more area exposed to that gas, the more efficient reduction of the ore into iron. You could take it as far as powdering it, but somewhere between sand and fine gravel is usually good enough. Roasting in particular creates fractures and liberates any chemically bound water, so you get gas pathways and less H2O in the way, as well.
So how is charcoal made? I'd be interested in knowing how this process can be achieved starting from near scratch. The ancient blacksmiths had to have produced their charcoal somehow, along with the right kind of bricks and what-not for building the furnace.
Charcoal is carbon-containing material (usually wood) that has been heated without oxygen present. Blacksmiths can use charcoal, but it really doesn't crank the BTUs the way coal does. Most effective blacksmithing uses anthracite or bitumen coal. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Smelting likes charcoal because it does not burn efficiently and so some of the carbon from the charcoal is incorporated into the iron being smelted to form steel. Nice oven, nice new project. Cool.
Aiki Xtal Specific to the making of iron from ore, coal carries with it too many impurities. It's not about the heat, this furnace exceeds 2800F at the blast... but rather the chemistry.
What were you actually loading in the top? The title says dirt... I assume it was something a little more sophisticated than that. Awesome job, by the way. It's cool to see things done "the old way" to remind us that we can still be modern humans even without fancy, high-tech arc furnaces and such. Nicely-done, man.
Another comment below suggests that 6 years ago, the rate was at or above $100/pound. Possibly more these days, but it's hard to say, because few people smelting are willing to sell their material. Also, with all the processing to consolidate the bloom, folding and welding, and final grinding, it takes at least 10 pounds of raw bloomery steel to end up with a 2 pound sword... much is lost to scaling, and compactness of the original material plays a big part in how much metal you end up with.
I remember seeing a documentary, probably NatGeo about a Japanese bladesmith building a giant furnace and tending it for three days, Shoveling coke and ore in one end, and after he was finished busting open the furnace and finding a chunk of raw steel. Is that the Tamahagane that you speak of? It would be sad for this kind of simple technology to be forgotten. Thanks for posting this.
I watched the native Bolivians do this with Silver in Potosi in what looked like strawberry pots. Was really cool. The silver ore was placed in it, directly from the mines around Cero Rico. And then silver would ooze out the little lips all over the pot. I loved that simple design but have yet to Make one. Apparently it’s a very old tech dating back to the time of the Spanish and the Potosi Mint where the miners mined the ore, refined it down to silver puddles/streams and it was carted off to the mint, refined again and then alloyed and struck into cob coinage or large 80lb ingots.
Hello Christopher, very nice and informative video on producing steel from iron ore. Though I have some questions. How is this tatara smelting process different from European bloomery furnaces? Both furnaces looks identical except for the long narrow end on the tatara smelter, and both furnaces follow the same steps shown in the video. Then why is the end product for the tatara smelter steel, and European bloomery furnaces iron? Also, how is European steel and tamahagane different? Japanese steel had to be folded to make the carbon content homogeneous, but what about European steel? Did they also fold their steel like the Japanese, or did they have a different approach to produce homogeneous steel? Thank you for this interesting video.
DerpTheGreat Materially, less difference than one might think. First it's important to distinguish the level of refinement needed for swords, vs. everything else made of metal in the same time and place. The key difference in the making, is the height of the stack, and the rate of air/charcoal/ore which is the balance that manages the end product's chemistry. In the Japanese case, the stacks were a little taller, which gave carbon more time to find its way into the iron, making steely bloom, where a viking furnace would usually be shorter, run faster, and not take up carbon as much in the process. That said, carbon can be added later through hearth refinement, taking bloomery material and re-melting it in a short charcoal-burning hearth, and a smith familiar with this process can adjust carbon content and melt out impurities without all the hammering and folding the Japanese process is famous for. Just different ways of skinning the cat, and despite the constant pressure of people wanting to know which is "better," there is no good objective answer to that - the craftsmen did what they needed to in order to create the tools and weapons in demand by their cultures in their time. Those of us who study historical metalcraft see the overlap in techniques among ancient cultures, but one has to remember that they were working in a world without a scientific understanding of carbon's role in steel, nor the impurities that grant certain properties when alloyed through smelting, native to the ores used. They also certainly didn't exchange information freely among themselves across continents like we do today, the knowledge of good steel production was guarded like nuclear secrets were in the 20th century. Such secrecy and reliance on traditions, accidental observation, and (what would appear to us today) very low tolerance or appetite for experimentation, builds an easy foundation for myths, legends, and wonder at the end product. Make no mistake, this is alchemy, magic to those who don't understand it. Even educated modern smiths can still marvel at it and feel a little "touched" by being able to turn rocks into the finest edged weapons known to man.
Nice Job Christopher... I'am planning to make a fornace too, but I have a question, is it possible to get a higher temperature up to the ponit of liquifing the the metal using the same type of fornace as you did ? Can it be done ??
The iron does usually go liquid for just a moment, as it passes through the hot spot in the fire, just above the tuyeres. That liquid drops down, dripping and welding to itself to make that solid bloom you see pulled from below.
@inkva I believe you can just get the black sands you need from rivers and streams. look up gold panning. black sands are usually a secondary product of gold panning and may be collected or purchased from prospectors.
@BulletShogun the tatara is used to smelt smaller metals together. though you might need to change a few layer steps, depending on what you're trying to accomplish. may an expert correct me if i am wrong .
Tidewater HUGE Thanks for this post ! it was awesome to see this technique being used ! Could you keep running the furnace for days ?. Or I guess until the clay gets consumed or broken down, You southern boys sure know the tricks, :) Thank you again. I am going to have my 13yo grandson watch this video,I am sure he will find it as fascinating as I did,
when he says layer, what is the "powder" that he is referring to between the Cole ? powder from the ore that they broke up? wish they were more specific about the incidence measurements they had in this video . thank you for posting though one of the more informative home made steel video , i just find all kind of industrial videos , witch doesn't help me on my quest of educating my self of off grid living for end of world scenario lol . now on to how to make gun powder
+ixxgunnerx x Yes powdered ore, then charcoal, then ore, charcoal. Steel is carbonized (from the charcoal in this case) iron. The charcoal acts as heating fuel but also carbon ending up in the final product, and the construction provides the right low oxygen environment to chemically convert the ore. The result also has some other junk in it from the surrounding rock minerals and dirt, etc. In other furnaces, this is dealt with by adding flux, chemicals that bind impurities and then flow out separately. Lime and borax (though not sure about the latter in a furnace) are decent iron fluxes. Or hammering the bloom (chunk of impure steel at the end) over and over later on and folding it can help push the impurities out physically. I don't recall them mentioning flux in the video, not 100% sure what this is here or know enough to just glance at it and say for sure, but there's more than one way to skin that cat.
Crushed charcoal, ore powder, silica sand, both the silica and the charcoal act as fluxes, typically hematite is mostly oxidized already, not sure what they're using but the hot as hell fire with all the carbon to burn the oxygen in the ore either ends up burning or bonding with the silica.
yeah its iron powder from the ore they broke up or u can get pure iron powder as well if u buy it that way, otherwise its a lot of work to make it pure yourself from just being ore
AWESOME!! I have watched this several times and am amazed and impressed each time. I have some questions. When you say you layer it in with charcoal and powder, what is the powder? (Iron ore?) Also how do you work with the end product? Do you heat it and beat it in your forge with hammer and anvil? Or do you melt it again to further refine it? I would like to see a much more in depth video of the this process. Thanks for sharing this with us.
You're right, and actually, at 1:43, the gentleman who just laid in the iron ore was talking about how the rhythm of the drums was a timing mechanism for older cultures to keep the right pace while feeding their furnaces. This isn't meant to be the complete history of it, just one example filmed almost 7 years ago.
Hey man cool channel, i have 1 question what kind of furnace do u recomend for smelting gold ore? (by the way i dont want any electric or LPG furnaces) i want to make 1 at my home and smelt gold using coal or charcoal, but my fear is that i will ger little gold from single ore and that if i burn it in furnace i wont be able to find it. Cheers!
I can't comment on Japanese law, but my recollection from back then (it was 7 years ago now... wow.) was that the samples were gifts from Japanese swordsmiths on a well-coordinated visit to a university, and through that professional exchange, a few pieces were offered for reference to compare the emerging American work to. Something like that. You'd have to ask Ric, though, for a better answer.
Thanks again for the lesson. Question - is another reason to use charcoal to add carbon to the molten steel making it tougher (high carbon steel) or is the carbon added earlier in the forging process?
As Dr. Blue mentioned in the video, it must be hammered flat, folded, and welded, over and over several times to get a homogeneous bar of steel, which one can then choose what to do with. For lack of power tools, strong men and hammers will do the trick - it just takes time.
Cool, thinking about doing this myself, just a few questions: -can u also put scrap iron in the top? - is bbq coal good enough? - can u let the structure cool down and clean itout the next day? -wcan you leave the end product p
Yes - 2 reasons. The first is probably human impatience, but the practical reason is that usually, the bloom is worked immediately, beginning that compression and cleaning process, and it's very difficult to get it as hot as it is in that furnace it was born in. Typically we quit feeding ore, give it another foot of charcoal, burn it down a bit, then extract the bloom with the air still running and burning the fire - take the bloom to a stump and start hammering it tighter and smaller.
I'm not familiar with your part of the country, but old iron mines (that you can get legal access to) are an excellent source for the hobby smith - barring that, there are several commercial vendors in various forms of magnetite or hematite, either will do just fine. Around here you can find Taconite pellets (mostly magnetite powder, bound with a little clay - look like big clay marbles) along railways, and that's what was used in this video.
Awesome stuff, I'm truly impressed but I'd like to see more. What I'd like to see is start to finish. Loads of info on the materials you're using to make the steel and how you combine them. This is a new subject for me and I'm very interested in all the info I can get. Any study suggestions you have would be awesome also.
How do you find pieces of "dirt"? I live in Illinois but am from the strip pits near WV/OH and found this incredibly interesting, thank you for posting. Also very cool how charcoal made of wood is used.
Folding and welding is done, but it's just the manual process for getting from a chunky piece of bloom, to a solid clean bar of steel from which to make swords. There is a lot of hype about how a certain number of layers makes a blade stronger, but that's all it is. The patterns of folded steel are incidental to the desire for a clean, homogenous, slag-free blade.
Very interesting video. I need to convince my dad to try this out. How hard is it to convert the final product of the burn into simple things like shovel blades and old school arrow heads?
Ok... it's a ten years old video but it was very interesting thank-you. Now comes the questions; What's "Powder". What's wrapped around the pipe (asbestos)? How pure is the new steel and what's its next process? I believe it was said that a 60lb blob of new steel was made? How often is this done (when materials are available)? The level of knowledge of this process was most interesting to me. Thank-you for the time and keep safe.
"Powder" is the powdered iron ore added with each charge of charcoal. Kaowool is a common insulating material for bladesmiths. The iron/steel produced still needs to be formed into a solid bar, and that process eats away at quite a bit of your material, but the finished process is much like what is seen on some excellent videos of Japanese bladesmithing - the best (highest carbon) pieces would be used for edge steel, and the rest used for the core. There are smiths everywhere doing this far more often than a decade ago, the revival in hand-making steel for swords is encouraging and very educational in understanding the process the ancients applied to their craft.
I was born and raised in a steel town (Youngstown), lived but 2 miles from the mills until age 8, my father and all his friends all worked in the mills through high school and college. My grandfather was a boiler engineer his entire life for one of the mills. From all that, did I know anything about how steel was made? No. In this video alone, I've learned more about how steel is actually made. Thank you!
I greatly enjoy videos such as this that give a detailed description in everyday lingo. They really come in handy as light, but educational material for friends with a bit of interest in the subject.
This country needs more people like this. There's reading about something (most college) and then there's trying something (the rest of college) and then there's craftsmen/women and artisans that perfect processes through repetition, and are confident enough to share their knowledge with others.
It's nice to see people doing cool old world art. Much respect.
Just discovered this video, I think I have found my new love. Thanks for making this. So awesome to watch how this is done. I will be looking for a class and group that does this kind of thing in my area.
I'm not interested in producing steel for my foundry but it's really nice to get an understanding of the process . I'd loved to hang out with these cool guys to do this tho! Nice video!!!
Great video! I have always been fascinated with this process, and you make it easy to understand. Thanks!
So many beards. So many beer guts. Keep up the good work gentlemen.
got lost in youtube and bumped into this vid.. thought it was boring but ended finishing the vid// its very interesting thx for the post good sir
Fundamental secrets of human technical culture revealed. THANKS for an amazing video!
In the iron age with that knowledge, this man would have been a rich privileged man.
Granite XD
Apparently the European blacksmith was often regarded as a kind of sorcerer.
Depends, in India they made really good steel, like damascus steel
Granite lol
+Yin Look Damascus steel would have been made from something very much like the bloom resulting from this method shown here.
Looks like a lot of hard, dirty work. But at the end of the process when you finally finish the last bit of grinding and polishing on your totally home-made knife it must be satisfying. Great vid.
You guys did a great job. It takes hard work and dedication to do it the old fashion way. Ive been thinking about picking up blacksmithing as a hobby so learning how to forge my own bars will be really helpful. Great video, keep doing what youre doing!
For something I expected to be rediculously boring to watch, this was actually something amazingly interesting to watch.
Holy hell, your voice is so reminiscent of my late grandfather's voice, the comment on Virginia boys pushed that feeling even farther. I know it wasn't in any way your intention when you made this video but thanks, really gave me a good feeling.
That's Dr. Blue talking. I was the student then, filming and trying to learn a few things. I believe he resides in Montana now.
Miister Cloud l
Christopher Price My mistake, thanks for the response. I somehow missed it in my notifications. Probably going to start another binge on your videos. (: Thanks again for the upload.
Celine Merhen You? :b
Miister Cloud eedeeesdśssś
So badass. I've always wanted to learn the depths of metalworking, forging in particular. I hope I get to try this out one day.
So awesome :)
looks like a gathering of the masters!
would love to tag along some year and just stand back and learn.
Thanks for sharing!
You can see this does not look like anything like a knife - that guy is funny!
One addition I'd like to see is how to find Iron Ore. i.e. where to find it, what does it look like and any visible signs that would help identify the Iron Ore. Outside of that, Great video on how to make steel from Iron Ore.. Thanks for the upload!! :)
holy shit! I recognize the guy that made the ULFBERT sword. saw a documentary. that guy is an amazing blacksmith
Ric Furrer. That’s him.
Good eye! I have the documentary of making the sword on dvd but I didn’t know it was the same guy.
I have no experience with metalworking, but this was fascinating to watch!
Thanks for posting this.
Happy men at work. God bless you guys!
"Anyway..."
Flawless intro.
Thank you Christopher!
I have one katana made of Tamahagane and the rest are medium carbon steel blades thank you for posting this video I love it. it has me want to make my own steel and forge my own.
We all have to love these people.
This is absolutely amazing.
Wonderful video! Thank you for sharing this!
That may very well have been one of the most awesome videos I've ever watched on TH-cam..... The ingenuity of the human spirit at it's finest. Creating as we were created to do. Thank you Sir.
most beautiful thing i have seen so far involving fire
I really enjoy this! thank you for putting this great video up!
A TURBULENCE as in a "rocket nozzle" : absolutely brilliant!
(I speak in addition to the slow vehicle movement, part t. and no hard schedules, The Box club, publishing on waste receptacles and cans with saying such at stores). AGA9N, BRILLIANT.... PTL Almighty for you on this!
This is one of those things I always wanted to get into. Smelting, SCUBA, and flying a helicopter. Well, I may have to be satisfied with just SCUBA but I want you to know I really appreciate this look into smelting the old way. Thanks so much for taking the time.
Man that looks awesome, making and doing things like this.
Awesome video! It's enlightening and informative, I really appreciate it. I love learning this kind of stuff. I think it's really important normal people learn how to make things on their own. It's the only real way to have any sort of independence in the world.
Amazing. Great video guys.
very cool in a hot fashion, thanks for sharing
The very same, and one of my several teachers of ancient steel-making.
like the Red Ballons, designed to make us feel good. Thank you.
Very interesting and very educative. Thank you
this is awesome. nothing like making something right from the beginning
Thank you for sharing this video and this incredible knowledge.
.
absolutely fascinating!!! Loved this.. thank you!
this is really great work!
Awesome video. Nice to see Ric Furrer in a more layed back setting like this, and of course the awesome bloom. I'll be making a small scale tatara this winter hopefully, and this has helped a little bit (The sacrificial carbon for the bloom to expand.). Wish I was there.
Hey guys, thanks for a great video.
I'm a metallurgist..they built a primative furnace. They put in iron ore (FeO, etc) and charcoal (C) and let it combust. Air entered through the tuyeres (tubes at the bottom that they were seem cleaning out) that then reacted with the charcoal to form CO and CO2, which heated up the iron ore and allowed FeO, etc to break up into cast iron/steel (depending on exact carbon content) and slag (SiO2, MnO, etc). For more into check out NOVA s35e05 "Making of a Samuri Sword"
Roasting and crushing increases the surface area. As Dr. Blue mentions, it's hot CO gas doing the work, so the more area exposed to that gas, the more efficient reduction of the ore into iron. You could take it as far as powdering it, but somewhere between sand and fine gravel is usually good enough. Roasting in particular creates fractures and liberates any chemically bound water, so you get gas pathways and less H2O in the way, as well.
Nothing brings the men together like a huge lump of red hot steel. Cool video :D
Aesthetic accident - I like that phrase.
Cool video. A big clump of human will and ingenuity.
So how is charcoal made? I'd be interested in knowing how this process can be achieved starting from near scratch. The ancient blacksmiths had to have produced their charcoal somehow, along with the right kind of bricks and what-not for building the furnace.
Charcoal is carbon-containing material (usually wood) that has been heated without oxygen present.
Blacksmiths can use charcoal, but it really doesn't crank the BTUs the way coal does. Most effective blacksmithing uses anthracite or bitumen coal. Both have advantages and disadvantages.
Smelting likes charcoal because it does not burn efficiently and so some of the carbon from the charcoal is incorporated into the iron being smelted to form steel. Nice oven, nice new project. Cool.
Aiki Xtal Specific to the making of iron from ore, coal carries with it too many impurities. It's not about the heat, this furnace exceeds 2800F at the blast... but rather the chemistry.
lol, first video in the right hand column is a making charcoal vid
Look up primitive technology. He's got a video of a basic charcoal make. love that channel
thank you for the vid. thinkin of makeing forging a new hobby and this looks to be like somthing i'd have to try
Very interesting, thanks for the video!
makes sense. thanks for sharing - the vid and information is very cool!
Very nice bloom you have there, sir.
Old but gold 🥇
What were you actually loading in the top? The title says dirt... I assume it was something a little more sophisticated than that.
Awesome job, by the way. It's cool to see things done "the old way" to remind us that we can still be modern humans even without fancy, high-tech arc furnaces and such. Nicely-done, man.
Not that I am aware of, but the community of people doing this has expanded greatly since this video was made.
Another comment below suggests that 6 years ago, the rate was at or above $100/pound. Possibly more these days, but it's hard to say, because few people smelting are willing to sell their material.
Also, with all the processing to consolidate the bloom, folding and welding, and final grinding, it takes at least 10 pounds of raw bloomery steel to end up with a 2 pound sword... much is lost to scaling, and compactness of the original material plays a big part in how much metal you end up with.
I remember seeing a documentary, probably NatGeo about a Japanese bladesmith building a giant furnace and tending it for three days, Shoveling coke and ore in one end, and after he was finished busting open the furnace and finding a chunk of raw steel. Is that the Tamahagane that you speak of?
It would be sad for this kind of simple technology to be forgotten. Thanks for posting this.
I watched the native Bolivians do this with Silver in Potosi in what looked like strawberry pots. Was really cool. The silver ore was placed in it, directly from the mines around Cero Rico. And then silver would ooze out the little lips all over the pot. I loved that simple design but have yet to Make one. Apparently it’s a very old tech dating back to the time of the Spanish and the Potosi Mint where the miners mined the ore, refined it down to silver puddles/streams and it was carted off to the mint, refined again and then alloyed and struck into cob coinage or large 80lb ingots.
Hello Christopher, very nice and informative video on producing steel from iron ore. Though I have some questions. How is this tatara smelting process different from European bloomery furnaces? Both furnaces looks identical except for the long narrow end on the tatara smelter, and both furnaces follow the same steps shown in the video. Then why is the end product for the tatara smelter steel, and European bloomery furnaces iron?
Also, how is European steel and tamahagane different? Japanese steel had to be folded to make the carbon content homogeneous, but what about European steel? Did they also fold their steel like the Japanese, or did they have a different approach to produce homogeneous steel?
Thank you for this interesting video.
DerpTheGreat Materially, less difference than one might think. First it's important to distinguish the level of refinement needed for swords, vs. everything else made of metal in the same time and place. The key difference in the making, is the height of the stack, and the rate of air/charcoal/ore which is the balance that manages the end product's chemistry. In the Japanese case, the stacks were a little taller, which gave carbon more time to find its way into the iron, making steely bloom, where a viking furnace would usually be shorter, run faster, and not take up carbon as much in the process.
That said, carbon can be added later through hearth refinement, taking bloomery material and re-melting it in a short charcoal-burning hearth, and a smith familiar with this process can adjust carbon content and melt out impurities without all the hammering and folding the Japanese process is famous for. Just different ways of skinning the cat, and despite the constant pressure of people wanting to know which is "better," there is no good objective answer to that - the craftsmen did what they needed to in order to create the tools and weapons in demand by their cultures in their time. Those of us who study historical metalcraft see the overlap in techniques among ancient cultures, but one has to remember that they were working in a world without a scientific understanding of carbon's role in steel, nor the impurities that grant certain properties when alloyed through smelting, native to the ores used. They also certainly didn't exchange information freely among themselves across continents like we do today, the knowledge of good steel production was guarded like nuclear secrets were in the 20th century. Such secrecy and reliance on traditions, accidental observation, and (what would appear to us today) very low tolerance or appetite for experimentation, builds an easy foundation for myths, legends, and wonder at the end product. Make no mistake, this is alchemy, magic to those who don't understand it. Even educated modern smiths can still marvel at it and feel a little "touched" by being able to turn rocks into the finest edged weapons known to man.
Nice Job Christopher... I'am planning to make a fornace too, but I have a question, is it possible to get a higher temperature up to the ponit of liquifing the the metal using the same type of fornace as you did ? Can it be done ??
The iron does usually go liquid for just a moment, as it passes through the hot spot in the fire, just above the tuyeres. That liquid drops down, dripping and welding to itself to make that solid bloom you see pulled from below.
Thank you very much for sharing
I'm happy to disappoint you, then! Glad you enjoyed it.
Wow that is very cool.
Congratulations.
@inkva I believe you can just get the black sands you need from rivers and streams. look up gold panning. black sands are usually a secondary product of gold panning and may be collected or purchased from prospectors.
@BulletShogun the tatara is used to smelt smaller metals together. though you might need to change a few layer steps, depending on what you're trying to accomplish. may an expert correct me if i am wrong .
Tidewater
HUGE Thanks for this post ! it was awesome to see this technique being used !
Could you keep running the furnace for days ?. Or I guess until the clay gets consumed or broken down,
You southern boys sure know the tricks, :)
Thank you again.
I am going to have my 13yo grandson watch this video,I am sure he will find it as fascinating as I did,
Wow that was very interesting. So is this just dirt from your back yard or dirt from a special location?
when he says layer, what is the "powder" that he is referring to between the Cole ? powder from the ore that they broke up? wish they were more specific about the incidence measurements they had in this video . thank you for posting though one of the more informative home made steel video , i just find all kind of industrial videos , witch doesn't help me on my quest of educating my self of off grid living for end of world scenario lol . now on to how to make gun powder
ixxgunnerx x The powder the're referring to is iron ore.
+ixxgunnerx x Yes powdered ore, then charcoal, then ore, charcoal. Steel is carbonized (from the charcoal in this case) iron. The charcoal acts as heating fuel but also carbon ending up in the final product, and the construction provides the right low oxygen environment to chemically convert the ore. The result also has some other junk in it from the surrounding rock minerals and dirt, etc. In other furnaces, this is dealt with by adding flux, chemicals that bind impurities and then flow out separately. Lime and borax (though not sure about the latter in a furnace) are decent iron fluxes. Or hammering the bloom (chunk of impure steel at the end) over and over later on and folding it can help push the impurities out physically.
I don't recall them mentioning flux in the video, not 100% sure what this is here or know enough to just glance at it and say for sure, but there's more than one way to skin that cat.
Crushed charcoal, ore powder, silica sand, both the silica and the charcoal act as fluxes, typically hematite is mostly oxidized already, not sure what they're using but the hot as hell fire with all the carbon to burn the oxygen in the ore either ends up burning or bonding with the silica.
yeah its iron powder from the ore they broke up or u can get pure iron powder as well if u buy it that way, otherwise its a lot of work to make it pure yourself from just being ore
Liked the video. What is the brick and what is the mortar you use
Very interesting video. What kind of carbon content is in the iron? Is this essentially the way wrought iron was made?
thanks
Doug
AWESOME!! I have watched this several times and am amazed and impressed each time. I have some questions. When you say you layer it in with charcoal and powder, what is the powder? (Iron ore?) Also how do you work with the end product? Do you heat it and beat it in your forge with hammer and anvil? Or do you melt it again to further refine it? I would like to see a much more in depth video of the this process. Thanks for sharing this with us.
You're right, and actually, at 1:43, the gentleman who just laid in the iron ore was talking about how the rhythm of the drums was a timing mechanism for older cultures to keep the right pace while feeding their furnaces.
This isn't meant to be the complete history of it, just one example filmed almost 7 years ago.
Hey man cool channel, i have 1 question what kind of furnace do u recomend for smelting gold ore? (by the way i dont want any electric or LPG furnaces) i want to make 1 at my home and smelt gold using coal or charcoal, but my fear is that i will ger little gold from single ore and that if i burn it in furnace i wont be able to find it. Cheers!
I can't comment on Japanese law, but my recollection from back then (it was 7 years ago now... wow.) was that the samples were gifts from Japanese swordsmiths on a well-coordinated visit to a university, and through that professional exchange, a few pieces were offered for reference to compare the emerging American work to. Something like that. You'd have to ask Ric, though, for a better answer.
great vid
i have a question. what do you do different to get steel out the bottom in stead of iron .
Great video bro...ahh where did ya get those bags of charcoal?? I am in neeed of some for my small washtub forge
Fascinating! I would love to do something like this.
Thanks again for the lesson. Question - is another reason to use charcoal to add carbon to the molten steel making it tougher (high carbon steel) or is the carbon added earlier in the forging process?
As Dr. Blue mentioned in the video, it must be hammered flat, folded, and welded, over and over several times to get a homogeneous bar of steel, which one can then choose what to do with. For lack of power tools, strong men and hammers will do the trick - it just takes time.
Great editing, kudos.
Cool, thinking about doing this myself, just a few questions: -can u also put scrap iron in the top? - is bbq coal good enough? - can u let the structure cool down and clean itout the next day? -wcan you leave the end product p
Yes - 2 reasons. The first is probably human impatience, but the practical reason is that usually, the bloom is worked immediately, beginning that compression and cleaning process, and it's very difficult to get it as hot as it is in that furnace it was born in. Typically we quit feeding ore, give it another foot of charcoal, burn it down a bit, then extract the bloom with the air still running and burning the fire - take the bloom to a stump and start hammering it tighter and smaller.
I'm not familiar with your part of the country, but old iron mines (that you can get legal access to) are an excellent source for the hobby smith - barring that, there are several commercial vendors in various forms of magnetite or hematite, either will do just fine. Around here you can find Taconite pellets (mostly magnetite powder, bound with a little clay - look like big clay marbles) along railways, and that's what was used in this video.
Awesome stuff, I'm truly impressed but I'd like to see more. What I'd like to see is start to finish. Loads of info on the materials you're using to make the steel and how you combine them.
This is a new subject for me and I'm very interested in all the info I can get. Any study suggestions you have would be awesome also.
Really enjoyed this film. I, too, was wondering about the ore source. Hope to smelt a small bloom one day myself.
Whats your smithing lv?
Famila Senpai 99
someone here plays runescape I do as well lol
Skyrim reference
@@soulsreaper7145 the cape.. the old sandlot with three iron ores.. good times
I believe you meant "Metallurgist level". ;)
How do you find pieces of "dirt"? I live in Illinois but am from the strip pits near WV/OH and found this incredibly interesting, thank you for posting. Also very cool how charcoal made of wood is used.
What materials did you guys use to form the stack? Fire bricks and fireplace mortar?
Looks like a hell of a time though!
I loved this video so much i wish i couldve been there to learn
what a fascinating processes!
Folding and welding is done, but it's just the manual process for getting from a chunky piece of bloom, to a solid clean bar of steel from which to make swords. There is a lot of hype about how a certain number of layers makes a blade stronger, but that's all it is. The patterns of folded steel are incidental to the desire for a clean, homogenous, slag-free blade.
Very interesting video. I need to convince my dad to try this out.
How hard is it to convert the final product of the burn into simple things like shovel blades and old school arrow heads?
very nice job guys keep up the good work. one quick question where'd you get the raw tamahagane from?
Ok... it's a ten years old video but it was very interesting thank-you. Now comes the questions;
What's "Powder". What's wrapped around the pipe (asbestos)? How pure is the new steel and what's its next process?
I believe it was said that a 60lb blob of new steel was made? How often is this done (when materials are available)?
The level of knowledge of this process was most interesting to me.
Thank-you for the time and keep safe.
"Powder" is the powdered iron ore added with each charge of charcoal. Kaowool is a common insulating material for bladesmiths.
The iron/steel produced still needs to be formed into a solid bar, and that process eats away at quite a bit of your material, but the finished process is much like what is seen on some excellent videos of Japanese bladesmithing - the best (highest carbon) pieces would be used for edge steel, and the rest used for the core.
There are smiths everywhere doing this far more often than a decade ago, the revival in hand-making steel for swords is encouraging and very educational in understanding the process the ancients applied to their craft.
So where does the beer come out of that thing?