[TheForge] Fw: Ancient metallurgy article...

[Phlip]

Ene bichizh ogsen baina shuu...

> I'm not sure you got the point of what he's trying to do.  He's not
> interested in JUST getting a bloom.  He wants to measure all the
> variables TOO.  Airflow, prefire temps and duration, ore size, charge
> size, recharge rate, charcoal type, charcoal size, ore type, furnace
> clay type, tuyere angle, tuyere diameter, furnace height, furnace
> interior shape, furnace platform type, tapping arch placement,
> tapping arch size, and weather conditions; just to name a few.
>
> So, with that in mind failures are perfectly acceptable.  It's not
> enough to have an automatic recipe for success (which is what talking
> to SCAdians would probably have gotten him), but to know WHY that recipe
works.

Not really, Dan- missing the point, I mean. Seems to me that it would be
somewhat more effective to start with what works, then play with the
variables, one at a time, to develop a bell curve of what's more effective
and what's less effective. Blundering around, maybe getting a bloom, maybe
not, strikes me as being highly inefficient.

OTOH, if his goal is to dig lots of holes in the ground, and build lots of
fires in them, maybe he's doing it the right way- for him ;-)

> What he needs is to get in contact with "Earlyiron".
> (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/earlyiron/)  It's a group dedicated to
> historic smelting AND maintaining the meticulous records needed for
> scientific analysis.
>
> Daniel Crowther
> Gobae - The Smith

Hmmm- looks like a group I need to join and lurk in. Ultimately, I want to
go through the entire process, from dirt in the ground, to a usable finished
project, just for my own curiosity.

Saint Phlip,
CoD

"When in doubt, heat it up and hit it with a hammer."
 Blacksmith's credo.

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....