[TheForge] Fw: Ancient metallurgy - US Bicentennial Bloom

[Bruce Freeman]

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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