Smelting Iron from ROCKS (Primitive Iron Age Extraction)

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So, were here at this railroad and we found that these rails are made completely out of iron so were just gonna pop off few bars.

Ah yes, very clever to use the residue of the still free ranging wild freight trains.

the amount of decated time, effort, research and will to make these videos is honestly incredible.

Idk how I’ve never seen this channel before, I’m goin through my own similar journey and having the hard work laid before me is really helping so thank you this is right down my alley!

"I made this" 4 people working the bellows: "I'm sorry what?"

Finally. Tongs. No more messing around with chopsticks.

Watching this makes you appreciate how far weve come as a society in terms of these metallic alloys and elements, and also, this also gives me some kind of excitement as to what is to come in the future in terms of material science. We are still a young species technologically-wise, and Im sure that there will be some some great breaktroughs in the next 500 to 1000 years, as long as we can get along with each other, geopolitcally wise.

What I liked about all of your Videos the most is 'you show how you failed during the experimentation' this is where I learn about it a lot and get my doubts clear as the video goes on. Thank you for putting so much effort into video editing and everything, we as viewers are learning a lot from you. :)

10:30 Who else thought he was about to start tearing up abandoned railroad tracks?

Achievement reached: “Acquire Hardware”

I've been using coal that is found by train tracks here in north Carolina, so I was not surprised at your finding iron ore pellets there. Thanks for showing this!

This reminds me of my youth at our placer gold mines in B.C. You wouldn't believe the minerals you can find within a 20 minute drive of the hamlet of Wells. The beach sand of Jack-o-clubs lack is literally made of iron ore (iron sulphide to be specific, aka, fools gold or pyrite). It's incredibly heavy and very beautiful. Our mines were only a few miles from the townsite and in that small area you could find shales of all sorts, pyrites, the biggest chunks of quartz you've ever seen (I still have a piece that's probably a couple thousand pounds in front of my house from there), etc. In retrospect, it was a good place to spend the summers as a kid, despite hating it at the time.

So we found this natural source of high grade iron proceeds to pull out an angle grinder and cut up the train tracks

"Anyone wanna try this?" Goes to chill in the background, while the rest works...

Great job! I love your humble curiosity and I admire your willingness to put in a lotta work with a smile to make things basic and authentic.

Awesome info. Thank you for doing all of the heavy lifting. And thank you for bringing us along.

I've done a few smelts using a similar design to your combined cob stack and bowl bellows. I added ONE extra feature tho. And its made a HUGE difference to the process. I used a thin piece of bark (set low on the inside of the bowl and worked into a recess) to create a one way valve. The difference it made in air flow. AND in shoulder pain was... Tremendous. Basically you take a strip of bark. or anything thin and flexible and bury the top half into the cob wall as you lift the leather the pressure difference lets the valve flex and let air in. But when you push down the valve is forced close and all the air goes out thru the stack. It makes the bellows so much more efficient.

And lo, on the end of the 6th day, God created tongs. He click-clacked them together twice, and it was good.

Interesting. In Southeast Texas we have "redbeds" of iron ore at the surface from Early Permian-age. They were mined in late 1800's till 1920'ish. Very easy to dig. There are huge piles of it. Often used for rural roads. May have to try to do some smelting.