I've been doing a lot of research and planning for a large ore smelt using a 'viking-ish' stack furnace that I'm planning for April 30th... (Anybody who can make the drive is welcome.... plenty of space for camping and if you like steelhead fishing.. they should be running right down the road from my house.. PM me if you want to come out).

I'm hoping to get some success in this endeavor as I'm hoping to start building materials for some pattern welding projects that I have in mind since my new press is nearing completion.

Anyway... doing research into smelting introduced me to another technique that I'm excited about because it is on a smaller scale, requires less charcoal and is a great way to make use of all the small bits of wrought iron that I save. Also.. I've recently lucked onto an enormous supply of wrought iron nails (if you have interest in these.. PM me) that will be great for this technique. It is basically a form of 'orishigane' where you place bits of iron in a small furnace with an air supply and allow the charcoal to carburize the iron into steel.

Here is my furnace:



It is basically just a 5" diameter stack and an external air chamber for air delivery made from made from clay, straw, and vermiculite. You basically just add charges of charcoal and iron in the top, let it burn down and hopefully collect a bloom of metal from the bottom. I will use my forge blower for the air supply, but I would like to build a bellows for doing this at rendevous and re-enactments.

I built mine from here:

http://forums.dfoggknives.com/index.php?showtopic=11327

Hope to have something to show from all this work soon....