[TheForge] Fw: Ancient metallurgy - US Bicentennial Bloom

Thu Nov 3 10:33:12 EST 2005

Hehe well I said it was a quick calculation.. but you are right those
nailheads must be about $50000 a pop! I wouldn't want to build a very
big house using those nails :o)

Stephen

On 11/2/05, mrscherm at aol.com <mrscherm at aol.com> wrote:
> Boy, with that much free time we could have used you in our "worlds
> most expensive ax project". The last I saw of the ax head, it had been
> fitted with a haft and was to be given to the Town of Saugus, MA. Also,
> I misspoke, as I now recall, we also made five or six nails from the
> shards that fell off the bloom. The cost of those nails would be right
> up there. You do need to remember, that all this stuff now available in
> print on blacksmithing was not available at that time. We were indeed
> re-inventing the wheel. The rebirth of smithing started around then,
> and has blossomed in the last 25 to 30 years, including the founding of
> our host ABANA, the sponsor of this list.
> Michael
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stephen Viola <stephen.viola at gmail.com>
> To: Sponsored by ABANA <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 23:05:36 +0200
> Subject: Re: [TheForge] Fw: Ancient metallurgy - US Bicentennial Bloom
>
> You know I did a quick calculation of the man hours that went into
> this project. Having over 100 people working over a period of ten
> months collecting the bog iron (not full time of course), plus the 60
> odd attmepts of smelting the ore (unknown amount of days / weeks)..
> this axe head would have to be the most expensive axe head in the
> world!!! Fulltime salary would come to 1.875.00 million Euros (not
> including the smelting process).. thats one damned expensive axe
> head!!! Who has it by the way?
>
> Stephen (Wombanator)
>
> On 10/31/05, Bruce Freeman <FREEMAB at pt.fdah.com> wrote:
> > Let me chime in that there are a lot of people in this neck of the
> woods
> convinced that some local brick red sandstone is bog iron. Not at all
> true.
> Good bog iron ore is amonst the richest iron ore around. Of course, it
> CAN
> easily be diluted with sand, mud, leaves, etc., but the ore itself has
> a high
> iron content. Probably depends a lot on the bed it's lifted from.
> >
> > I wouldn't be surprized if there were a LOT of good bog iron out
> there now.
> What with the fact that few people have been interested in it since
> 1835, and
> the normal "regeneration" time of only 25 years. Acid rain could have
> pushed it
> either way. The additional acid would leach the soil of iron faster,
> but too
> much acid in the bog may have prevented its precipitation as carbonate.
> >
> > Bruce
> > NJ
> >
> > >>> mrscherm at aol.com 10/31/2005 2:32:03 PM >>>
> > Hi Roland,
> > I sent a photo of some bog iron directly to you, as I dont believe
> that
> > we can attached photos thru theforge. I looks like thin layers of
> > crusty brittle iron amongst muck, leaves and whatall.
> > Michael
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Rowland Smuck <rsmuck at direcway.com>
> > To: Sponsored by ABANA <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
> > Sent: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 10:58:57 -0800
> > Subject: Re: [TheForge] Fw: Ancient metallurgy - US Bicentennial Bloom
> >
> > Does anybody have a picture of Bog Ore, I don't know what to look for?
> > Rowland of Roseburg, OR 97470
> > 10 miles to the nearest Red Light
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Bruce Freeman" <FREEMAB at pt.fdah.com>
> > To: <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
> > Sent: Monday, October 31, 2005 10:32 AM
> > Subject: Re: [TheForge] Fw: Ancient metallurgy - US Bicentennial Bloom
> >
> >
> > Just curious - Where was that bog iron stored between mining and
> > smelting?
> >
> > Bruce
> > NJ
> >
> > >>> mrscherm at aol.com 10/25/2005 11:09:57 AM >>>
> >
> > In 1976 we had over a hundred volunteers gathering "bog iron" from
> > swamps and cranberry bogs on the south shore area of Boston and Cape
> > Cod. Over the course of about 10 months, we accumulated about a ton of
> > bog iron platelets and used the Saugus Iron Work site to re-enact
> early
> > American iron smelting. We used sea shells gathered from the beach and
> > mixed it with the bog iron in equal amounts and purchased hardwood
> > charcoal for fuel. We didnt make this recipe up, we read it in the
> > "Iron Master's" log books from the Iron Works library. Of course we
> > were sure we'd end up with hundreds of pounds of iron. We had lined up
> > blacksmiths and projects ranging from nails to muzzle loaders and
> > eagerly awaited the results of our efforts. It was so incredibly
> > difficult to get the bloom to stay together (similar to forging a
> > meteorite) that after about 60 reheats, we ended up with just about
> > enough iron to make one small trade ax. Was fun though. I dont know
> who
> > ended up with all the photos and log of the activities, but I think we
> > gave it to the Iron Works or the National Park Service.
> > Michael
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Phlip <phlip at 99main.com>
> > To: EKMetalsmiths at yahoogroups.com; theforge at mailman.qth.net; ArtMetal
> > Sandbox <sandbox at artmetal.com>
> > Sent: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 20:51:05 -0400
> > Subject: [TheForge] Fw: Ancient metallurgy article...
> >
> > Think you metalheads might find this interesting. Think the guy might
> > have
> > asked a few SCAdians, though- we've got folks whove been producing
> > successful blooms for a while.
> >
> >
> > > http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/10/051011073801.htm
> > >
> >
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