Jan Ysselstein

Some micro pics. Top photo is of the top surface after wire brushing. The largest spacing of the secondary arms is about 1/32 of an inch .

The irregularity on the bottom of the ingot was refractory material. The crucible is made of two clam shells glued together with refractory. The pieces must have fallen to the floor before filling with metal ….and adhered to the hot floor before they could float away.

Good news/ bad news …..very pleased.. As soon as I figure out how to post my phone magnified pictures I will post some.. Still having some unincorporated material on the bottom side of the ingot…I am starting to think this is related to the particular shrinkage phenomenon. This may not be a big problem as I can work around it. Furnace is ruined , oh well. It got very, very hot. The top of the ingot is phenomenal ,very large dendrites. I added 200 grams of new material to the melt 50/50 cast/ e iron. The 200 grams showed up at the end of the melt. The spark test is beautiful…very much like a file. I am going to work with the ingot. To find out what the bottom phenomenon might be. As far as the historical process …..I am content with the ingot dimensions for the long run. We will get through these tech hurdles …now thoughts are about ingot melting over charcoal and the chemistry of those ingots. .

Before discarding a couple of cast refractory furnace shells I thought I might try one to reduce some ore. Not good.

A slight change in the plan. I will do a little grinding around the edges to allow the ingot to fit into another crucible without breaking it upon heating it. We will melt again at 1/2 hrs. heating and 1/2 hours homogenizing at max temp. So, we have learned a lot in a day, most importantly is the furnace appearance when the fuel/air mixture is too rich….very useful, slag may not be needed,

No slag was added to this melt….I ran the furnace in a reduction mode most of the run. That approach may have cost me some heat , resulting in unincorporated e iron. All in all …I am very happy with the results. The ingot weight is exactly what went into the crucible ….wow. I have one more this size and several an inch smaller …onward we go.I will cut this in half and have a look inside….it should all be pearlite. The unincorporated e iron has picked up a lot of carbon as seen by the spark test.V The ingot is 4.5” diameter, 1” thick at its thickest place.

I finally got a chance to fire the furnace with the new crucible. So far so good I am about to allow it all to cool and will share the results regardless their appearance.

The crucible is approaching historic shapes…..the top will soon be modified to allow handling with tongs.

The crucible is holding about 1450 grams. E- iron, cast iron , charcoal. Hoping to find out if my cast iron is high enough in carbide formers and will produce a pattern at 600 grams out of 1450 grams total. I will fire the crucible Wednesday if all goes well.

Joshua , I think it will work, the very last test can be ignored due to the unwanted silica. The ore size is so fine the reduction speed should be rapid. What I did notice is the fire did not penetrate the furnace diameter very well. That is due to the charcoal size …most of the charcoal is about 1/2” to 1” . We need to adjust the process to one that will use the smaller material. Some options are multiple air inlets …a stronger blast…, and a few others. I will post a picture of the two furnaces side by side.

OK the above bar will have to wait until I find it again….it is one of many. I would like to get into this thread again….test a few ideas and exit this Winter. Right now an exit looks like a lens bottomed crucible fired over charcoal to completion. Now off to build an 8” diameter crucible furnace.. The next series of ingots will be targeting a specific volume ,for example say one would like to process an ingot large enough to make several knives or a sword……we would need enough steel to make a bar 3/16” x 2” x36” or 13.5 cubic inches of ingot….that ingot will have to weigh at least 1850 grams. I will start at 1500 grams and work my way up.

The next run will be made with a small hearth furnace. Then we will modify the 10”pipe above and add another air inlet opposite the existing one.. both furnaces are about the same size.