[TheForge] Fw: Ancient metallurgy - US Bicentennial Bloom

[mrscherm at aol.com]

Hi Bruce,
I got involved in this effort thru membership in the ASM (then, 
American Society for Metals), and recall one of our members, also a 
smith/metallurgist from a large tool and die company in Holden, MA, 
stored most of it at his plant. His name is Paul Nowick, but I dont 
think he is on theforge list. Sorry I dont how it was stored, but do 
know that it arrived at the Saugus site in a dumpster-like container 
like you would use to store metal turnings before shipping them off to 
the scrap metal company. ASM had completed a restoration of the Saugus 
Iron Works and turned it over to the town of Saugus Historical Society. 
Shortly thereafter, locals broke in repeatedly and looted everything 
that wasnt nailed down. The Ironworks was done over several years later 
and this time turned it over to the US Park Service who I believe still 
maintains it. Were you curious about whether it was kept wet?
Mike Schermerhorn

-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Freeman <FREEMAB at pt.fdah.com>
To: theforge at mailman.qth.net
Sent: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 13:32:04 -0500
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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