Smelting

[ChrisM]

Dear All,

I am wishing accrue a list of persons and/or organisations who are experienced and practiced in the arts of smelting and in metallurgy and metal separation and purification from ore generally, particularly from the finding and practical identification of said ores to private/small-scale smelting with charcoal/wood/coke/coal/etc, to furnace-construction, and so forth, to producing metals (and minerals) of various types ready for Blacksmith and other metal trades/crafts/arts/pottery/jewellry etc uses. I would be grateful if you were happy and able to either let me know yourselves, and/or of other parties. All replies would be treated in confidence, and private forum email responses might be a good route to use.

I am aware of Fergus' work at Butser, incidentally, in case this came up.

[This relates to a national+ (hopefully altruistic/charitable) endeavour that I am in the early throes of furthering, in which regard these skills are one key part].

Many Thanks and Best Wishes,

Chris.

 

[Mikey P]

Might be worth having a chat with Dave Budd - he makes his own knives/tools but I'm not whether he's smelting his own metal. Google his name and I think he's also a member of the forum.

 

[Mike Ameling]

You should check out a book called

Iron For The Eagles: The Iron Industry of Roman Britain
by David Sims and Isabel Ridge
isbn 0-7524-1900-5 first published in 2002

The authors investigated Roman era iron production throughout Britain - including archaeological digs. But then they went further by re-creating the iron production from dug ore, and then forged up Roman iron weapons/tools from the iron they produced. Very interesting reading.

Also check out Iron Smelting in the Viking Age by Darrell Markewitz of Wareham Forge. A web search should lead you to his web site. He has done a lot of work on Viking era iron production - especially in Vinland (Newfoundland Canada).

Hope this helps.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

 

[Matt.S]

Dave Budd has a good knowledge, especially relating to historical methods. I have a little theoretical knowledge of the same. What are you looking for in particular? If you want I can point you in the direction of an international online community of metalworkers, with blacksmithing being the specialty.

 

[robin wood]

goto British blades forum. I think there is a link from the edged tools section here. I know there was a guy recently posting about a lot of experimental work in Denmark there.

 

[Dave Budd]

Hi,

Most of my work is post-smelting (slags and ores don't really float my boat), but I have lots of friends who work in experimental iron.

Probably the best place to look is the email group http://iron.wlu.edu/EarlyIron.htm

I'll have a dig about and see what else I can find (though you may need to give me an email nudge as I may forget, sorry )

What exactly are you looking for information on? I may be able to point you int he right direction

Another good bet is to contact Dr Gill Juleff at Exeter uni. She is the archaeometallurgist and has a particular interest in iron smelting. Did some great work on wind powered furnaces in Sri lanka, but also lots on Exmoor too