I felt like I was back in metal shop class in sophomore year of high school as I watched this series on using old-tech methods to make wrought iron in a bloomery furnace. What a blast. All I can say is that John Switzer and Jake Radcliff are great teachers, and terrific speakers.
What a great series of videos on making wrought iron from scratch from locally-sourced raw materials that included black sand magnetite ore from Black Bear Forge’s land — along with the DIY clay brick bloomery furnace for smelting the whole shebang. They made their own pine charcoal, too. Neat-o.
Bloomery iron is the kind of iron that Yeol-son was talking about making in Ep. 14. All I could hear from Hae Mi-hol was the subliminal mantra “Not Invented Here.” I recall Yeol-son’s earlier fascination with the bellows for forcing air into the bronze smelter. Well, if he got carried away enough, and used resinous pine wood for fuel, he could get a nice hot blaze that just might naturally result in a batch of high-carbon steel. It’s also possible that burnable black stones were available, too. That would ensure a much hotter fire than pine charcoal. The resulting bloomery iron would still have to be worked to remove the slag & impurities, and consolidate the little bits together — the same way that wrought iron is. (The process is called “forge welding.”) But I could easily imagine the Wahan Thomas Edison devising a sure-fire process to crank out high-carbon steel for edged weapons that would cut through bronze swords ones like butter…
Is there even enough time for this to happen in the remaining 4 episodes? I sense another opportunity loss, dang it.
Thank you for posting these. I wish they had made the drama about this subject rather than all the endless battling and bloodshed, it’s much more interesting 🙄
This really gives me a new appreciation of my great-grandfather who was a blacksmith.
You’re most welcome, @bbstl! I’m glad you find the iron smelting videos interesting.
My GGF was a machinist (no wonder I got off on running the metal lathe and the vertical milling machine in shop class!). IIRC, one of his brothers (there were 7-8 of them) was a wheelwright, while another was a carriage painter. The pin-striping on autos dates back to the time when wagons and carriages were gussied-up with spiffy paint jobs.
If you’re into historical fantasy/alternate history, there’s a great trilogy with blacksmithing as a significant theme by science fiction writer Harry Harrison in collaboration with Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey that you might find interesting. It’s called The Hammer and the Cross and it’s set in 9th-century Britain after the Romans pulled back and the Vikings began attacking. A young British slave is apprenticed to a Viking master armorer/smith who is a decent human being who treats him well, unlike his own father. The young guy bears a dog’s name (just like Dong-rok Gae in NOKDU FLOWER). He becomes a follower of Wayland the Smith, the British name for the Norse god of metalworking. The whole trilogy was as addictive as Lord of the Rings, although your mileage may vary. 😉 Our hero ends up sailing off with the Vikings, down the rivers of Russian into the Mediterranean, and playing with Greek fire before ending up in Languedoc during the Albigensian heresy. It’s totally epic. No wonder ARTHDAL frustrates me.
PakalanaPikake
September 13, 2019 at 8:38 PM
ARTHDAL CHRONICLES, Ep. 14
Final thoughts and recap of the bloomery iron smelt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGAzDBc1kQc
They got carried away and made high-carbon steel instead of wrought iron!
PakalanaPikake
September 13, 2019 at 9:09 PM
I felt like I was back in metal shop class in sophomore year of high school as I watched this series on using old-tech methods to make wrought iron in a bloomery furnace. What a blast. All I can say is that John Switzer and Jake Radcliff are great teachers, and terrific speakers.
What a great series of videos on making wrought iron from scratch from locally-sourced raw materials that included black sand magnetite ore from Black Bear Forge’s land — along with the DIY clay brick bloomery furnace for smelting the whole shebang. They made their own pine charcoal, too. Neat-o.
Bloomery iron is the kind of iron that Yeol-son was talking about making in Ep. 14. All I could hear from Hae Mi-hol was the subliminal mantra “Not Invented Here.” I recall Yeol-son’s earlier fascination with the bellows for forcing air into the bronze smelter. Well, if he got carried away enough, and used resinous pine wood for fuel, he could get a nice hot blaze that just might naturally result in a batch of high-carbon steel. It’s also possible that burnable black stones were available, too. That would ensure a much hotter fire than pine charcoal. The resulting bloomery iron would still have to be worked to remove the slag & impurities, and consolidate the little bits together — the same way that wrought iron is. (The process is called “forge welding.”) But I could easily imagine the Wahan Thomas Edison devising a sure-fire process to crank out high-carbon steel for edged weapons that would cut through bronze swords ones like butter…
Is there even enough time for this to happen in the remaining 4 episodes? I sense another opportunity loss, dang it.
bbstl 🧹
September 16, 2019 at 5:43 PM
Thank you for posting these. I wish they had made the drama about this subject rather than all the endless battling and bloodshed, it’s much more interesting 🙄
This really gives me a new appreciation of my great-grandfather who was a blacksmith.
PakalanaPikake
September 17, 2019 at 12:06 AM
You’re most welcome, @bbstl! I’m glad you find the iron smelting videos interesting.
My GGF was a machinist (no wonder I got off on running the metal lathe and the vertical milling machine in shop class!). IIRC, one of his brothers (there were 7-8 of them) was a wheelwright, while another was a carriage painter. The pin-striping on autos dates back to the time when wagons and carriages were gussied-up with spiffy paint jobs.
If you’re into historical fantasy/alternate history, there’s a great trilogy with blacksmithing as a significant theme by science fiction writer Harry Harrison in collaboration with Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey that you might find interesting. It’s called The Hammer and the Cross and it’s set in 9th-century Britain after the Romans pulled back and the Vikings began attacking. A young British slave is apprenticed to a Viking master armorer/smith who is a decent human being who treats him well, unlike his own father. The young guy bears a dog’s name (just like Dong-rok Gae in NOKDU FLOWER). He becomes a follower of Wayland the Smith, the British name for the Norse god of metalworking. The whole trilogy was as addictive as Lord of the Rings, although your mileage may vary. 😉 Our hero ends up sailing off with the Vikings, down the rivers of Russian into the Mediterranean, and playing with Greek fire before ending up in Languedoc during the Albigensian heresy. It’s totally epic. No wonder ARTHDAL frustrates me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hammer_and_the_Cross
bbstl 🧹
September 17, 2019 at 8:33 AM
HA for real, no wonder Arthdal frustrates you 🤣 This trilogy sounds ripe for a drama version! Thanks!