Iron Smelt - Wareham ON - October 11, 2009

Date:October 11, 2009

Location:Wareham ON

See also: Darrell Markewitz's ironsmelting site

Team: Ken Cook, Sam Falzone, Neil Peterson, 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 second 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

Burn Details

Results

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

Discussion:

Conclusions:

Photos:

Air System	Starting build	Adding ore	Furnace Self-tapping

Raw Data:

CLOCK	ELAPSED	EVENT	AIR *	CHARCOAL			ORE
				UNIT	COUNT	TOTAL	UNIT	TOTAL
			mark	bucket		kg	kg	kg
				(1.76 kg)
12:00		start wood splints pre-heat
13:42	1:42	first rough charcoal added		1
13:46		air system attached to tuyere
13:49		air restarted
13:50		full with rough charcoal		3	4	7.04
13:52		switch to pump bellows only
14:15		ignition only to + 25 cm
14:17		addition of electric blower	4
14:18		charcoal		1	5	8.80
12:00		main sequence start
12:19	:19	charcoal		1	6	10.56
12:33	:14	charcoal		1	7	12.32
12:34		air increase	6
12:35		air increase	8	1	5	8.80
12:43	:10	charcoal		1	6	10.56
13:55	:12	charcoal		1	7	12.32
13:05		air increase	9
13:06	:11	charcoal		1	8	14.08
13:18	:12	ore added as 2 @ 1/2 kg		1	9	15.84	1	1
13:30	0:12			1	10	17.60	1	2
13:41	0:11			1	11	19.36	1	3
13:51	0:10			1	12	21.12	1	4
14:01	0:20			1	13	22.88	0.5	4.5
14:09	0:08			1	14	24.64	1.5	6
14:25	0:16			1	15	26.40	0.5	6.5
14:36	0:11			1	16	28.16	1	7.5
14:48	0:12			1	17	29.92	1	8.5
15:00	0:12	ore added as 3 @ 1/2 kg		1	18	31.68	1.5	10
15:13	0:13			1	19	33.44	1.5	11.5
15:27	0:14			1	20	35.20	1.5	13
15:36	0:09	ore added as 2 @ 1/2 kg		1	21	36.96	1	14
15:49	0:13	ore added as 4 @ 1/2 kg		1	22	38.72	2	16
16:00	0:11			1	23	40.48	2	18
16:12	0:12			1	24	42.24	2	20
16:14		last ore addition					0.5	20.5
		start burn down
16:42		air decrease	6
16:44		air decrease	4			0.00
16:45		start extraction
	TOTAL	charcoal	43 kg
		ore	20.7 kg	DD-1	6 kg
		time (main)	4:45	DD-2	4.6 kg
		bloom	5.6 kg	Haematite	10.1 kg
		yield (corrected for water)	27%	total Fe	61%
	* AIR	pump bellows volume	253 L/M
		electric blower varies
		total volumes shown only approx.

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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