Bryan Davis

Did they like it?

You're late. I did like a week ago

Do you just kind of call up the owner of the property and ask them ever so politely if you can take ore off the land? How do you identify who owns the property? I looked around mindat.org (this is really cool - didn't know it existed!) and found a few places closer to where I live (Gwinnett) that I'd be able to swing by, but don't know how to interpret the results. That is, I don't know how to find out who to call. This one in particular: http://www.mindat.org/loc-72214.html I do know there are no active iron mines in Ga, so I don't actually expect a problem once I get in contact with the right person, but I'm finding it difficult to find out who that is. Worked! Some good instructions and step-by-step directions on there, thanks. Question - you used 12 inch tubing for the column. Did the clay shrink significantly when it set/hardened? From what I've read around here and through the various person sites, 10 inches seems to be yielding the best results. Another question is - I've seen that Lee has done some experiments regarding angle of the tuyeres, but has there been any proposed reason for why some angles work better than others? I still haven't really grasped what the purpose of the "door" at the base is. Is it just to help extracting the bloom? Is it to help detach the bloom from the walls? Something to do with tapping slag (I thought we wanted a slag bath in the bottom for most of the process?)? Sorry for all the questions, but the more I read/learn the more questions I seem to have. Also, nice sculpting on the back I do plan to go into this more when I get some experience. This post was a bit premature for me, but I had just been thinking about it for a bit. In addition to extending the stack up, I'm going to have to reinforce the structure on the outside because any success in actually increase the pressure will put more strain on the clay and I'm worried it will crack/break. Also, have you and the others ever put your recorded data into a database somewhere? Or, if you haven't, would you mind if I started consolidating all of your public data with others in a central searchable/queryable system? It would help with comparing results and finding patterns.

Some good info on here, but I'd change the layout a bit to make it look more like several blog posts and less like one big article with multiple parts.

Looking great!

This is absolutely beautiful. Way to go!

Thanks for the reply Mark. I wasn't clear in my post, but what I was referring to was a furnace where you could regulate the internal pressure, not air pressure of the forced air. After I posted, I realized that this really just isn't possible because of many, many reasons (I had just been thinking on the theory for a while - basically a practical application of Boyle's Law - and hadn't thought of practical construction of the thing yet). Ha. But I hadn't yet looked into which shop vac I was going to be using, so your reply was still helpful! I've been working my way through both Lee's and Darrell's posted material. The amount of info they've gathered since starting this is staggering. Unfortunately, there is no natural source of iron near me so I'm going to buying some hematite commercially. However, Kaolin is plentiful around me, so I got lucky there and I can create my own charcoal. I'm going to be following Lee's recommended design for my first smelt ( this one: http://leesauder.com/pdfs/furnace%20construction.pdf) so I can get the process down before experimenting with custom furnaces. I joined up on the linked Facebook group, thanks for the link. I'm expecting to actually get out there and smelt in about a month and a half (rather than over-thinking it) and I'll definitely return here with some pics! I'm near Atlanta, Ga - if anyone wants to stop by just send me a message and I'll let you know the details. Bryan PS - Your Picasa link was a relative link rather than an absolute link so I couldn't follow!

Hey everyone! This is my first post, and I am making it as I ramp up towards my first smelt. I have been going over the posts here and have been able to get a lot of the details of my first smelt down, like ore type, flow rates, charcoal creation, furnace design, etc... What I haven't seen though is any talk about the internal pressure of the furnace and what effect it has on a bloom. I was thinking of modifying one of the Rockbridge furnaces to increase the internal pressure as a way of increasing the temperature. Has anyone tried doing this? If so, was it helpful? Hurtful? Aside from a different way to regulate temperature, I'm speculating that the rate of reactions inside the furnace would increase at a higher pressure, so I wanted to try it to get a better yield. Anyways, thanks for all the great info so far! -Bryan