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Monday, June 20, 2011

DARC at CanIRON 8 - Preparation Smelt

- June 11 at Wareham
Smeltmaster - Neil Peterson
Lead Hand - Richard Schweitzer
Loader - Sam Falzone

Furnace - Econo Norse (standard set up)
Ore - untested rock ore from Bratton's Run, near Lexington Virginia
Amount - estimated at roughly 23 kg
Bloom - 2.65 nice soft iron


Slag tap 2/3 through sequence


Neil peeks while Richard loads

Compacted and sliced bloom

Full smelt report with images is now available on the main Wareham Forge Iron Smelting Documentation:
June 11 / 11 Report

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Rocks melt good!

Saturday was our last practice smelt before the CanIron presentation on July 28.

A nice simple smelt using the econo-norse-in-a-can design, that was extremely well behaved giving us no grief at all until the very end when we went to pull the bloom.

We need to finish up the notes and add this (and other) smelts to the website but around 26 Kg of Virginia rock ore were melted down into a bloom that consolidated down to around 5.5 lbs.

Hopefully we can get a photo or two posted onto the blog soon.

Neil

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Demonstration IRON SMELT : June 11



- The Dark Ages Re-creation Company will be mounting a demonstration IRON SMELT at the upcoming CanIRON 8 (Fergus, Thursday July 28)

http://www.ontarioblacksmiths.ca/CANIRON8/demonstrator/darc.html

The preparation / test smelt for this will take place on our normal
spring smelt weekend :

Saturday June 11
Wareham Ontario
Demonstration start time: 9 AM
Expected extraction time : 5 PM


Neil Peterson will be smelt master, demonstration team is Dave Cox, Sam Falezone and Richard Schweitzer.

Those interested in attending the June session can undertake the role of the general
public. This may mean that there may also be roles available as part of a
'hands on' aspect to the demonstration.

The smelter to be constructed is the Econo Norse type (firebrick with
sand packing). This is a modern system using easily available parts in its construction.
http://www.warehamforge.ca/ironsmelting/EconoNorse/index.html


In addition there will be some general grunt work to be undertaken, required to prepare materials for the two smelts. Smashing charcoal being one task. Breaking rock ore would be very
helpful.

Following the CanIRON pattern, this June 11 demonstration intended to be a ONE DAY
sequence.

How to get to Wareham?
http://www.warehamforge.ca/directions