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  1. Mike Ameling

    Blast furnace.

    Darrell Markewitz of Wareham Forge has compiled a CD-ROM of his and his friends attempts at re-creating a Viking era iron smelt. "Iron Smelting in the Viking Age" with over 600 images including working plans. A web search will bring you to his web site. Tons of info on low-tech iron...
  2. Mike Ameling

    Blast furnace.

    These are all just variations of what is called a Bloomery. If you do a web search for "bloomery" you will find a bunch of info. Some people took advantage of a hillside bank to build their bloomery/chimney into - and get the air supply by natural hot-air currents and any local wind. Others...
  3. Mike Ameling

    Forging

    And thus another person becomes addicted to blacksmithing. A good simple air supply blower is as close as that old hair dryer/blower in the junk drawer or at a boot sale. Even purchased new from the store. A little "duct tape" will adapt it to your pipe to blow into the fire. And it...
  4. Mike Ameling

    Viking firestarting, the quartzite & soft iron method

    Please go back and re-read the whole message thread. This is not about "flint/steel" fire starting. It is about a specific variation of starting a fire - with SOFT IRON and QUARTZITE. It is a method of fire starting that came into fashion/use a couple hundred years ago in the Scandinavian...
  5. Mike Ameling

    Flint on flint

    In theory? Maybe. The specific version of flint you use needs to have enough iron and carbon content in it to burn with a "spark" hot enough to be caught with good materials and then coaxed into a fire. But here are lots of "ifs" there. One of the writers for Wilderness Way magazine (I...
  6. Mike Ameling

    Missing link

    The scientists are getting pretty desperate to PROVE Darwin's "theory" of evolution - that they have been teaching as established fact for many decades. But it still is an UNPROVEN "theory", nothing more. And all the other "theories" about how man and our world came to be in its current...
  7. Mike Ameling

    Bending pipe without a pipe bender ?

    If you just want to make a quick/simple bend, and are not too concerned about anything being left inside your pipe, then just cut a length of sapling that will slip inside your pipe. That will provide the inside support as you bend it. After you bend it, you can try to fish out that sapling...
  8. Mike Ameling

    Looking for different fire starting methods

    Hmmm ... only 6 ways? I wonder where that one old blacksmith method would fall. Take a small rod - like 1/4 or 5/16 inch diameter. And them HAMMER the end of it - starting with it COLD. Rotate the rod between hammer blows. Hammer it fast, but not too hard. You are not trying to flatten...
  9. Mike Ameling

    Tallow?

    Yes, liquid veg oil works well in grease lamps. Yes, you do have to worry about tipping/spilling. But you also have to worry about tipping/spilling when using tallow/fat/grease. The heat of the wick needs to MELT that grease - so that it can flow up the wick to the flame. If it isn't...
  10. Mike Ameling

    Tallow?

    Grease lamps have a long history. And they vary from very simple to pretty elaborate hand-forged examples. First - you can see a couple good scenes of Innuit/Eskimo's using a grease lamp for light and heat in an igloo in the movie The Fast Runner by Zacharias Kunuk. They are using seal...
  11. Mike Ameling

    Historical Maple Sugar making demonstrations

    With the interest some people have in tapping Maple trees to make syrup/sugar from the sap, I thought I would post some links to several discussions (with pictures) of Historical maple sugar production demonstrations. Several friends did these demonstrations for the public at various Parks and...
  12. Mike Ameling

    material for char clothe

    As has already been stated, you can use any natural fiber clothe. The synthetics usually melt. And WELL WASHED. New material often has chemical sizing (and sometimes flame retardant) on it. So the more washed/used the clothe, the better it will work. That washing tends to expand and ...
  13. Mike Ameling

    Plans for a home made forge

    A forge is pretty simple. You need two main components. A container for your "fire". A method of feeding air into your fire. The rest ends up being ... creative design. Most coal or charcoal forges are bottom draft - they feed the air up from the bottom. But side-draft is also an...
  14. Mike Ameling

    Types of tinder in NE USA.

    I love tinder fungus (innonotus obliquus), when I can find it. But most of the time I use the dried inner bark off of cedar trees as my "tinder" and catch my spark in a small chunk of tinder fungus (or even charclothe). But a little clarification would be helpful. Are you intending to use a...
  15. Mike Ameling

    copper cape pin

    The time frame for Indian use of copper in North America generally stretches from 1700's on back before 900 or 1000 A.D. Exact dating is kind of poor because of the lack of other surviving objects that can better be dated - like coins during the Roman era. So carbon dating of other artifacts...
  16. Mike Ameling

    copper cape pin

    Plus I need to find a copy of an old jewelry book I heard about almost 2 decades ago. As I recall, it was called 300 Decorative Twists For Jewelers. It would be nice to scale some of them up for blacksmithing projects. I've searched, but haven't found anything. Mikey - that grumpy ol'...
  17. Mike Ameling

    copper cape pin

    Nice copper blanket pin or broach. And I personally like that "hammered" look instead of the smoothed/filed/polished look. Copper can be fun to work with. Just gotta be sure to anneal it often, or work it hot. Like these early North American Indian Copper Culture reproductions I made...
  18. Mike Ameling

    moving out

    These people do have regular jobs. So they rotate through the county parks within about 20 miles or so of their jobs. Yes, several do have those self-contained motor home type campers, but others have tents. And several have little kids in school. So they have to be careful to only stay at...
  19. Mike Ameling

    moving out

    Over the years, I've dealt with many many people who got a bad case of the ... "Walden Pond Thoreau" syndrome. They read his book, and then want to go out and do the same thing! Because HE did it and survived well! The BOOK only tells the good parts. It left out all those other little ...
  20. Mike Ameling

    Land..

    The "average" price per acre around me here in NE Iowa is $2900 per acre! Good "farm" land tends to be closer to $5000 per acre. We have a lot of hills/timber/pasture around my area, so the average price is lower that other areas. And small acreages always sell for several times that...