sethhoward

Good stuff!

Built a new hearth for remelting bloom and gave it a few runs yesterday. Produced 6.5 pounds of iron and steel. Thanks to Mark for all the advise and patience with all the continuing questions!

Mark were you trying to prove or disprove anything or just " seein " ? Seth

90% Copper and 10% tin makes a good bronze. I have used copper wire and tin solder many times for this. I STRONGLY advise starting with something small, like coin size, to learn the process. Seth

MANY here haver more experience in this area than i do but I think it is too big. In setting up mine and playing with width, I found 8 or so inches wide to be the sweet spot. Using one tuyere, 8 - 10 inches in depth worked well too. i did get a lot more heat when I covered the back half with bricks as well. You may try that or some other type of hood. Also is your bloom at the same level or about your tuyeres? How far away from them? Seth

This will pretty much just repeat what others have said. I tried both the Aristotle and Hearth methods of remelting. I found the Hearth much easier in just about every way. After reading everything I could from this forum and Lee's papers, I tried a smelt on my own and got something but not much. After I was lucky enough to watch Mark do a smelt I learned so much it was night and day when I did my second, and third, and fourth and ... Then using the Hearth to further refine my blooms was the cherry on top. All of this is very addictive and rewarding hard work. Now to get a press to reduce some of that work : )

Great work as always Mark. I need to get back to it! When do you plan to process those bars?

Nice as always Mark! Seth

Looking GREAT Mark. Not seeing it in person is yet another reason not making the trip this weekend sucks!!! : ( Seth

Great job all around!!!! Seth

Built a new remelting furnace and charcoal forge. I liked the design Zeb used to I went that way. Works great! I half expected my air supply to not be able to get things hot enough so I did not set a bottom on the test run. Guess who made cast iron ; ) I did not have my smelting air supply for the remelter because I had it on the forge. Well I learned it would work as a remelter too.

Another vote for 1075, 1080 and 1084. Easy to work stock reduction or forging, a simple heat treat and still makes a very good blade. Seth

Funny. This one was bowl shaped and I thought was not what I wanted. Seems like I see others as more a ball. I thought too much of my furnace had been eaten away below the tuyere and caused the bloom to be weird / misshaped. I figured it was time for a rebuild. I guess Rocky the smelter just needs some TLC and will fight again! Seth

Is there an ideal , or at least better, shape for the bloom as it comes from the smelter? Also ( and I believe this is tied to the first question ) when is it time to retire a clay stack smelter? Seth

Looking forward to seeing how this one ends up. Nice work. Thanks for showing it. Seth