Jan Ysselstein

Alan ...I spray some water on a mounted trizac belt and do a short grind and repeat and so on. The belt holds up pretty well.

Joshua, You might try placing a “T” in the line and placing the valve on a short side line , using that valve to vent off unwanted volume from the blower. If the valve is closed all your air stays in the system …if the valve is wide open you are running low flow/pressure. Maybe add a second T closer to the furnace where a 1/4” needle valve controls the gas flow into the moving air. The flame is controlled by the regulator…probably set at 5 psi and the air vent valve and the needle valve.and perhaps the intake to the blower.1” pipe just about fits into 1 1/4” pipe I use that combination a lot to quickly connect or disconnect. I will send a picture of what I have (although I am using a brush type vac blower and a variable transformer….. .

Chase , I have sent you a message on the 1.25" material ( H-13 ). Jan

Thank you Alan. This steel was cast iron ( bloomery cast iron ) and wrought iron ( no alloys). The next sequence will be 100% bloomery material made with local magnetite ore. That will be "Sole Steel" made in the Paramecium Forge.

I do not have too many options left to change the resulting pattern …the main variable I can still tweak is the cooling rate. That is where I will start….should be resuming melting in 2 weeks.

The two photos added are a look at a reduction of thickness by a factor of 10. If the bar had still been in one piece it would be 40” long. I am not too exited about the pattern as the dendritic look has been lost. ….I am happy to have avoided a "stretched out" look.

Wow it is here, great…as soon as I get past this Covid thing I will get back to what I was doing.

I had the opportunity to forge out some steel recently made…indirectly related to the topic here.

Unless I did not see the complete article above ...I would love to have seen some data on the microstructure and the composition of those ingots. This topic is very much alive for me. I am currently melting with a taller crucible the flatter lens crucibles are on the way. I will post some pictures as soon as this computer allows me to. Below are some recent microstructures, using a narrower taller crucible .

I do not know what alfa means

I use the chain for crucible steel some strap for san mai ...someone just requested a couple of wagon rims..some of it is the roof structure of a building called the Cooper House...which was located in Santa Cruz CA ..until an earthquake slightly damaged it and influencers got it demolished. Most of it just sits there waiting for GODO.

Jeff, I have wrought iron around ...send me a pm and we will communicate as to what would be best to ship. Be aware wrought is not an easy material to work with. I will post a photo of the mix . The material is in all sorts of forms from wagon wheels to very small chain.

Thank you for the second spark test...looks good . I don't know if you make the high carbon iron from magnetite sand or by carbonizing iron. Magnetic sand is available to us here in California and I have used it..have not made a lot of high carbon material but lots of iron and cast iron. If you are using the magnetic sand and getting high carbon iron we may want to share our notes. Oooops I just read the source of the material at the top of the post.

Francis, thank you for posting your project…..will it still spark as the one above? You have posted the cleanest intact hands I have ever seen here….you must wash the dishes every night.