Blacksmith's Shop at Sanctuary Armoury

 For the last year, I have been in discussion with Scott Nickles at his Sanctuary Armoury property about adding improvements to his property - in mind of his desire to create a more interesting historic reservation' for living history groups. Scott, who specializes in combat ready custom armours based on the 1400's (what I would call transitional plate) has been heavily involved with the HEMA community. To that end he has been hosting camping events, and this has expanded to include the SCA's Trillium War event over Canada Day week.

To that end, this year I will be working along with the Sanctuary Armoury team to build and equip a small blacksmith's shop out in the historic area. This will be the first permanent  structure, hopefully of other seasonal use facilities built by the participating groups. 

The blacksmith's shop will be a small, pole / timber framed structure, only 10 x 12 feet in foot print. With a dirt floor (ideal for a forge) and no power or water installed, the scale avoids permit problems. 

Sanctuary Blacksmith - tentative layout

You can see the arrangement of the forge and master anvil is fairly tight. (Worth noting that my own principle forge room at Wareham is roughly 12 x 15 feet, which includes four powered tools and a second propane forge.) 

One major difference is that this forge will feature a great bellows for the air delivery.  Years ago I had been given a quite old (late 1800's?) antique great bellows by my friend Kary Bates. Over the last two months I have been attempting to re-condition the dried out leathers, so to put the unit back into working order. I have been somewhat successful in this - at least to the point that the bellows can deliver a short air blast. (see below) The hope is that with use the leathers will soften a bit more.

One of the features of this layout is that the two side walls have sections at a fixed four feet, then panels hinged at the top which lift up to both permit viewing and create small sun / rain shelters. The wide front doors have a third 4 x 8 panel, also hinged at top, which acts to extend the enclosed space further, the top hinged 'roof' resting on the two open door panels.

 This week I cobbled together a hanging mount and bar for the bellows - and set it into the also antique 'semi portable' cast forge bowl I am re-configuring for this use. 

 The forge may be one of the very awkward transitional 'leaver to blower' units, my guess would be circa later 1800's. These used a pumped bar handle that had a ratchet assembly which converted up and down arm movements into rotation for an encased blower. There is a chance this unit might have a large side mounted hand crank wheel to drive the blower, a slightly later style.) All the lower working gear was missing, only the heavy cast iron bowl on legs was available. At the top of the image you can see the bulge in the dish where the wheel assembly was mounted underneath.

I had a spare lower input to ash trap casting, which I was able to mount with two bolts (the holes only roughly matched) to the bottom of the bowl.  For the air entry I took a piece of 1/8 inch plate and drilled a number of 3/8 holes. My experience with shallow dish forges has proven that encasing the air entry within a circle of 2 inch x 1/4 thick greatly improves the fire performance. I had a large quantity of low density fire brick on hand, which I cut and sculpted to raise the effective floor of the fire. When I deliver and install the unit, I will mount the bricks securely in a clay matrix. Further boxing of the fire is via a set of high density bricks around the sides and back as seen. (Use of the broken brick at the rear is intentional, this allows for one section to be removed when heating longer objects.

I undertook a short test firing of the whole assembly yesterday. Since there was no ventilation inside the main part of the workshop understandably coal smoke was a problem! I started the fire through the initial coking up, and made a very quick needle poker tool. 

I suspect the antique bellows may have a valve problem between the bottom inlet bag and the top output bag. The top was only lofting about the same amount as the bottom was delivering. Together this means the air blast is pulsing with each stroke, not the longer continuous blast normal with a great bellows. This may limit the overall size of the heat zone for larger work. 

Even with the bricks raising the level of the fire, I found that the working bar sat at too steep an angle. (The depth of the cast bowl is about five inches.)  To help flatten the position of a bar, I cut a slot about four inches wide by 2 inches deep into the very front of the bowl (would be at the front right of that image)

The overall result is not quite as effective as I would like. Although I originally learned on a great bellows system, that was a * lot * of years ago, and I will need to remember the subtlety of use. Every air delivery system has it's own quirks. One of the largest draw backs to any human powered system is that it chains you to the forge. 

 

 

Canadian IRON Syposium : ORES!

 Canadian IRON Symposium

September 4 - 7 (Labour Day)

Sanctuary Armoury - outside Peterborough ON

https://www.warehamforge.ca/Canadian-Iron/index.html 

The focus on this event will be on ORES. 

Participants will construct a proven 'short shaft' bloomery iron furnace, but each team will work with a different iron ore type.  This will include natural source, commercially prepared and analog ores. Each team will be provided with at least 25 kg of their ore (in some cases additional will be available).  Each type has it's own wrinkles towards creation of the best possible bloom. 

 'Lexington Brown' Goethite - Bratton's Run Virginia

This is an ancient Fe2O3 rock ore, used for the pioneering work by Lee Sauder and Skip Williams.  The reported elemental iron concentration is in the range of 59%.  The material on hand was gathered by myself at the abandoned Bratton's Run Colonial era mine, so the quality should be considered random and lower. There is a quantity on hand that has been both roasted and broken for size. Although there is more than enough of the raw stones available to support two more smelts, these will need to be roasted and broken still.

 

DARC Red Analog - Pottery Supply

This is the standard Fe2O3 analog for Bog Iron Ore, used for the bulk of the experiments at the Wareham Forge. In the form provided, the elemental iron concentration is roughly 54%. The fine 'Spanish Red' powder, available from pottery suppliers, is mixed wet with 10% flour as a binder, then dried into lumps ready for the furnace.

DARC Black Analog - Pottery Supply

This is an alternate analog, made from Fe3O4, again tested in our smelts. As mixed, the elemental iron content is roughly 60% (an excellent ore). Another fine powder, mixed with flour binder. Also available at pottery suppliers, this oxide is considerably cheaper (now) that the red.

 Granular Hematite - Opa Minerals

 This material is ground down from hematite ore from Quebec into very fine particles, and is sold as a sand blasting grit. An extremely pure Fe3O4, with an elemental iron content of 69%. The lack of silica combined with small particle size can make this ore tricky within these furnaces, without care to air / burn rate / temperature, cast iron can be created. With the addition of some additional sand for slag, this ore is most likely to produce higher carbon iron.

Individuals wishing to bring their own local ores for test smelting are more than welcome to do so! Be aware however, that each ore can rely on variations on furnace set up and method for best results. Any ore without at least 50% elemental iron content is unlikely to produce much by way of a workable iron bloom. At least 20 kg of a good quality ore is required.

 

 

Demo / Lecture over May 16 - 17

 

Presentations at the SCA's 'Fruits Of Our Labours' event coming up this weekend :

 

Saturday & Sunday afternoon : Forging the Viking Age.

Demo of a hypothetical charcoal sand table forge, using all replica tools. Ongoing, some potential participation. (requires all natural clothing, covered legs, closed toe shoes)

 

Sunday 10 am : Iron and the Norse.

 Lecture format, illustrated with replicas

 

Event? see : https://ealdormere.ca/fool/

 

‘The Sheep Rise Up’ ??

Do any of you actually *read* science fiction? *
You know, stories where computers and machines displace the majority of the population as the work force.
And the bulk of people live minimalist lives, distracted by video based ‘entertainments’. Packed into the most basic accommodations, with minimal food and other physical needs. All provided by ‘the State’.
Which all has to be funded by massively high taxes, paid by the overpowered corporate world, and those remaining few that actually still have ‘knowledge’ jobs.

It what is actually developing right this very instant in the West.
The United States of America is driving the Free World into exactly this version of the future. A future well illustrated by conditions in the former East Block nations and Russia of the 1970’s and 80’s. (Which that same rich and fat nation used to scorn.) 

And this is where the wheels fall off - Government has to be supported by funding.
If you shove everyone into low economic status (AI created layoffs, against massive increases in food, housing and fuel costs) the money has to come from somewhere. You can’t get blood from a stone.

How long before stones are raised and thrown at the glass windows of those ivory towers?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green

Note the  story setting date.

Filmed in 1973. Based on the 1966 novel 'Make Room! Make Room!' by Harry Harrison.

* This aimed (partially) at people who slavishly read a ‘book’ composed of many separate stories written over a roughly 1000 year span by entirely different authors - staring 3400 years ago (Old Testament). And think this somehow predicts events in our future? This is fiction - without any science.