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Dear all After meeting on this forum, Niko and i had a lot of conversation. we ended up with the crazy idea to organise a masterclass with both tatara and curcible steel making at my workshop in Hoboken, Antwerp, Belgium. So here it is, the masterclass will be organised in september 2015. Anyone who is interested in coming over please contact me at klaasremmen(@)gmail.com. We plan to work with 10 participants, more information in the flyer as attachment. Kind regards Klaas Historical metallurgy masterclass.pdf

We just finished our first attempt at creating crucible steel using a propane fired furnace. To test the furnace, we melted wrought iron, a little bit of O1 and charcoal. The crucible was not sealed so that we could watch it as the charge started melting. Here are some photos from our first "successful" run: Here is a picture of the setup: 5psi of propane on a 1/4in hose connected to a 1 1/2 diameter nozzle with a big blower. 3in of ceramic fiber blanket and 1in of concrete as insulation. The reactive crucible as everything was molten: Here is a temperature time graph - not that useful as we had to change bottles in between: I measured 3110F as maximum temperature; so next time, we can run with a little bit less pressure. And here some pictures of the bubbly ingot: It sparked low in carbon. For those who want to see the molten ingot in action, I also put up a short video: Anyway, lots of things to learn. Niels.