[TheForge] Making Charcoal

[newenglandforge at aol.com]

Hi Mike,
The heartbreak for me at Saugus was not the very small yield of iron, but that after years of collecting artifacts from the original Works, rebuilding and restoring the site, the AISI (American Iron and Steel Institute) turned over the restoration to the Town of Saugus, big mistake. The town folks liked it so much that they helped themselves to the artifacts and after a short while, it had been raped to the point of it not being recognized as an iron works.  A few years later, with the help of ASM (then the American Society for Metals), it was again rebuilt, (we got the steel mill that I worked for to donate two huge blocks of low carbon steel and Kunkle Forge in Boston forged them into the recognizable square ended, waisted anvil of the time, and the base anvil for the forge. It was then given to the National Park Service and has survived.  The smiths working there have since replaced the anvil with a London Pattern anvil, probably because it is so much more versatile. Sorry, I don't recall who made the charcoal (was purchased), but it was the real thing (not briquettes) big chunks of charcoal and came in large heavy-paper sacks and is still the fuel used by the blacksmith there.  
I'll keep you posted on the outlaw iron foundry book when I hear more.
Mike Schermerhorn



-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Spencer <mspencer at tallships.ca>
To: theforge <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wed, Feb 24, 2016 2:54 am
Subject: [TheForge]  Re: Making Charcoal


Mike Schermerhorn wrote:

> The site is presently being dated Circa 1640-50,...

That's the same decade as Saugus.  High tech in the wilderness.

> ...and the excavation being done by an historian who is writing a
> book about these small outlaw ironworks that apparently dotted the
> countryside in pre revolutionary New England.

Interesting.  Keep us posted.  I'd like to have the book, hear about
the archaeology.

> As a member of the AISI we helped rebuild the Saugus Iron Works in the
> mid 1960's and with the aid of over 200 volunteers, gathered bog iron
> and sea shells (purchased the charcoal)...

Did the charcoal come from Leverett, Mass.?  There was a working
charcoal business with big brick kilns in Leverett until sometime in
the 70s.  From where I lived in the late 60s, overlooking the Sawmill
River Valley, a tendril of wood smoke creeping down valley above the
river was a clue that they were firing the kilns.

> ...to be used in a fairly lame
> attempt to make iron for the bicentennial in 1976.  

I've visited Saugus Ironworks in the 80s, have the book and saw the
movie.  A very energetic Shiela Stiven, then NS government person in
charge of promoting fine art and crafts, organized the first
blacksmithing workhop in NS in the 70s and got the movie for us.

> There were dozens of projects lined up to be made from that first
> heat of iron, and the yield was just enough to make one small trade
> axe - was fun though!

I didn't realize that the one active run of the works wasn't very
successful.  But then, running such a thing was highly skilled
engineering in its time and experience, including numerous failures,
was probably needed to make a successful iron master.

The disappointment with the Saugus movie was that it had only about 30
seconds of the blast furnace running, same for the big power helve
hammer.

When I was there, I climbed up to the headrace for one of the water
wheels on the forge shop, peered through the bushes and there was a
Buick hubcap and a parking meter.  I guess it would have been too much
to expect them to expropriate half of Saugus for a mill pond. :-)
Someone, the book maybe, said that the storage shed at the foot of the
hill contained huge a pump that could pump water up to the water
wheels fast enough to make them go.  Pretty hefty pump.


- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
   /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^
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