Dan Waddell

Yes!

That’s an interesting read Tim. As far as crucibles are concerned, it seems it doesn’t matter a whole lot what they are made of. They just need to stay together for at least 1 run. Overshooting the carbon content and then decarbing the steel seems like the easiest solution if the clay can’t handle higher heats. I think I’ve had it backwards in thinking there was a secret ingredient to make the perfect clay. Daniel I have been that person...not by desire. Just stubborn curiousity.

I’ve never heard of using oil instead of water in the clay. That sounds like a fun method to try. Should canola be an acceptable oil in this application?

I second Charles. Thank you to everyone contributing. Who needs present when you’re gaining knowledge.

I like all the pics of stacked plates. I'm sure it's even more satisfying for you to look at! Is your feed stock all wrought / bloom iron?

Thanks for the link Charles! I haven’t read that yet.

I think I get the basics of what's going on. The relationship between iron and carbon is very intriguing, and I'm looking forward to learning more about how they interact with each other.

Thank you Jan, So if I'm understanding what your saying correctly. It's not that hydrogen makes the iron melt at a lower temperature. Just that the iron carbonizes faster. So comparing 2 other wise identical crucibles, 1 using charcoal and 1 using green leaves, the temperatures would be the same, but green leaves would possibly lower the soak time required to go full liquid. I think I may be misunderstanding the context of some of this information.

There was a comment, about hydrogen in organic matter lowering the melting point of iron, made by Al Pendray at about 14:30 from the following post. It seems like a pretty big deal to be able to achieve liquid iron at lower temperatures. Could this be explained a little further? I'm confused why more recipes don't use organic matter. Even in recipes that use cast iron, having relatively lower temperatures still seems desirable. Does the inconsistency of carbon content end up outweighing the benefit of lower melting points?

Thanks guys, much appreciated! I have to do another run or two before I have enough material for a decent blade. So it will be a while before some updates. Mark, I went with two tuyeres because I was struggling with a single tuyere. I thought with 2 apposing hot spots I would be less likely to freeze slag. Also since remelting this material takes me a relatively long time, compared to pure iron remelts, I thought using 2 smaller tuyeres would help keep ash from building up so bad. My main goal was to accommodate a 2-3lb bloom with as few cold spots as possible, while maintaining a reducing atmosphere. The floor of the furnace was roughly a 6" circle, 7"x10" at the tuyeres, and 6"x8" at the rim. My single tuyere furnaces are normally 6" or 8" shafts. I got a smelt or 2 planned between now and spring so hopefully I can try this more full scale like you describe!

Thanks Alan! I'm really happy with how this furnace ran, and look forward to future attempts. Soon I should have a few folds done on my puck so i can get a test etch in. I'm really excited to see what the steel looks like since it is behaving so nicely up to this point.(only 1 fold complete)

The Past few months I have been experimenting with refining bloom slag, particularly the fluff / mother. I had my first notable run which consolidated 8lbs of slaggy iron into 1.8lbs of high carbon steel. The puck was weighed after the first weld. Previously my attempts only hinted at victory so, with this furnace, I rolled the dice a little and overhauled almost every detail. The most drastic change being the addition of a second tuyere. In my opinion this solved 2 problems. First it helped prevent slag from freezing under the tuyere. Second it allowed for a higher pressure while maintaining a reducing atmosphere and a relatively even heat. Higher pressure seems more important to me with this slaggy stuff vs normal iron. Although I didn't achieve any reduction I'm still holding out hope that it is possible in these tiny furnaces. First I crushed up mother, and mixed with flour/water to make little slag sausages. Pieces that wouldn't break after a few hard hits were set aside along with clay heavy pieces. This was well worth the time since it let all the action happen in a small and very controllable location. From there the furnace ran pretty much like normal with the exception of tapping slag, which I did about every 1.5lbs of charge. The daytime photos are from 2 metalic iron(mostly) remelts I did with Emiliano and friends, which were a ton of fun too! You can see my nervous Nelly patchwork, but hey worst case is the furnace actually needed it.

Looking good! Is that all your steel I see?

I like the idea of an extension as well. Hopefully I can make a new blade a throw my name back in.

I decarbed my blade in heat treat and don't have time to make a new one. Here's the list with my name withdrawn. 1. Brian Dougherty 2. Timothy Artymko 3. Doug Crawford 4. JJ Simon 5. Scott Wright 6. Wesley Alberson 7. Robert Dowse 8. Kevin Hopkins 9. George Ezell 10. Michael Lenaghan 11. Dan Bourlotos 12. Aiden Carley-Clopton 13. Mike Andriacco 14. Emiliano Carrillo 15. Francesco Muci 16. Juho Voutilainen 17. Pieter-Paul Derks 18. James Fuller 19. John Page 20. Nate Runals 21. Scott Cruse