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Iron Smelt - Wareham ON - November 7, 2009

Date:November 7, 2009

Location:Wareham ON

See also: Darrell Markewitz's ironsmelting site

Team: Ken Cook, Sam Falzone, Neil Peterson, Dave Cox, Marcus Burnham, Richard Schwitzer

Premise:

  1. 1000 years ago the norse visitors at L'anse aux meadows attempted a smelt. We plan to reproduce that smelt.
  2. This marked the third of four smelts in a sequence designed to test several variables currently outstanding in our knowledge of the smelt.
  3. The smelting area was laid out as suggested by the archaeology of L'Anse aux Meadows, more photos of the furnace hut, and a discussion of the vinland furnace.

Furnace Design

TypeBoxed Short Shaft, clay/sand mix, tap arch
Extractiontop
Diameter20 cm
Height68 cm
Volume21352 cm3
Tuyure Typeceramic tube
Tuyere height from base15 cm
Tuyere penetration into furnace5 cm
Tuyere angle22.5 deg
Base designnatural set base cm

Burn Details

Bellow Typedouble bag (smleting) bellows
Avg Air rate700 litres per minute
Total Charcoal Mass28 Kg
Avg Burn rateunknown min per 2 Kg
Ore TypeDD2
Total Mass of Ore18 Kg
Burn Duration3.5 Hours

Results

Mass of Bloom2.9 Kg
Bloom Typelacy
Yield16%
Notes

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

Discussion:


This smelt added human powered air into the sequence

Conclusions:




Photos:


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Bellows Layout Building furnace Extracting
thumbnail    
Bloom

Raw Data:



CLOCK ELAPSED EVENT CHARCOAL   ORE    
      UNIT COUNT UNIT COUNT TOTAL
      bucket   kg   kg
               
               
9:35   start wood splints pre-heat          
10:30   start intermitent air          
11:09 1:04 fill with rough charcoal          
11:22   switch to graded charcoal          
    main sequence start          
11:40 0:18 charcoal 1 1      
12:00 0:20 charcoal 1 2      
12:19 0:19 ore as 3 @ 250 1 3 3 3 0.80
12:38 0:19 ore as 4 @ 250 1 4 4 7 1.88
12:55   drop slag bowl / tuyere to 30 •          
12:58 0:20   1 5 4 11 2.95
13:12 0:14   1 6 4 15 4.02
13:27 0:15 ore as 5 @ 250 1 7 5 20 5.36
13:41 0:14 ore as 6 @ 250 1 8 6 26 6.97
13:56 0:15   1 9 6 32 8.58
14:09 0:13   1 10 6 38 10.18
14:28 0:19 ore as 8 @ 250 1 11 8 46 12.33
14:45 0:17   1 12 8 54 14.47
15:03 0:18   1 13 8 62 16.62
15:15   last ore addition     5 67 17.96
    remainder charcoal added 1 14      
    start burn down          
15:42   air decrease          
15:50   extraction          
               
  TOTAL charcoal          
    ore DD-2 18 kg      
    time (main) 3:30        
    bloom 2.9 kg        
    yield 16%        
    gromps collected 1 kg        
               
  AIR human powered via smelter bellows          
    5 primary operators @72 / sec          
    average delivery @ 700 LpM          
Smelt_cd Reports of all of our iron smelting efforts along with more articles and information are available on the "Iron Smelting in the Viking Age" CD from the Wareham Forge.  Copies of the CD can be purchased here.
Text © Darrell Markewitz
Photographs © Darrell Markewitz
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