Primitive Technology: Iron knife made from bacteria
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2022-06-30に共有
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About This Video:
I smelted iron from iron bacteria and then cast the iron in a mold to form a rudimentary knife, making this the first iron tool I've produced yet. The ore was a species of bacteria that lives by oxidizing iron dissolved in ground water. It appears as an orange/yellow cloudy precipitate in creeks and ponds. It's a very common natural occurrence and can be found on all continents. I collected the diluted ore and poured it into a large, porous ceramic pot I made. The water leaked out, leaving behind the concentrated iron bacteria "mud" like substance. I dried it out until it resembled rusty earth. It took a month to collect the ore for one 2 hour smelt, from a stretch of creek about 20 meters long.
Charcoal was then made simply by burning a pile of wood in a small pit and then extinguishing it with just enough water once it had visibly carbonized. It was quicker to make than the charcoal I normally make in a mound (1hr vs 2.5hrs) and took less preparation time making than the mound from mud. A small furnace was made and the multiblade blower (made in the last episode) was attached to it for air supply.
The furnace was preheated for an hour with wood and filled with charcoal at the end, using the blower periodically but not full blast. Then over the next hour, 3 double handfuls of charcoal (about 500g) and 2 single handfuls or ore (about 200g) were added every 5 minutes while blowing air into the furnace to burn it at this rate. Then there was a 30 min burn down still using the blower till the charcoal reached the level of the air entry. The total operation took 2 hrs. A lump of slag was taken from the furnace and broken up. Iron prills up to about 1 cm in diameter were retrieved. For the sake of experiment I weighed the iron produced on modern scales= 40g iron from an estimated 1.2 kg of ore. Even though this is a low yield by modern standards it is a marked improvement over my previous smelts that produced much smaller and fewer prills over all. I did another smelt that almost exactly reproduced this result (80g of iron stored). The increase in efficiency is due to the much better blower design (8 blades vs the original 4).
Next I cast the iron in a mold. The melting point of pure metalic iron is 1538 C. However, the iron prills I produced are cast iron, an alloy of iron and carbon where carbon is about 2-4% by weight. Cast iron has a relatively tepid melting point of 1150 C. Such a temperature is easily attainable in an open hearth with charcoal and a forced air supply. So, I put the prills into a triangular clay mold and put it into a simple pit forge that took very little time to make. Importantly, I made a special flat air pipe that spread the incoming air into a sheet that blew over the width of the mold to heat all of it evenly, a round one would only heat the middle of the mold and not melt it completely. Charcoal was then put on top of the mold about 12.5 cm deep and the air blast started. The fire became white hot, exceeding the 1150 C needed to melt the iron. The iron melted filling the mold and the iron triangle was taken from it.
Initially, I was going to make it into an axe head, but decided it was too brittle (cast iron is actually harder than pure iron but brittle) so I sharpened it into a knife. It took many hours of sharpening to bring the end to a point. It's not a sharp blade it works well for drilling holes in timber (like for making fire drill sockets). This represents the first iron tool I've made completely from scratch in the wild. Future experiments will focus on obtaining greater yields of iron, exploiting richer sources of ore and ultimately making better iron tools.
コメント (21)
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He has officially reached the iron age. Next is the steam engine and the industrial revolution!
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Just watched SunnyV2's video on all the fake primitive construction videos out there and I just wanted express my gratitude for staying down to earth and honest about everything you do. You're the man John!
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It's absolutely fascinating to see how hard it used to be to make tools from iron and yet our ancestors made so much with these basic technologies
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Just goes to show how thoroughly cherished a tool or sword passed down through the family would be. These tools had HUNDREDS of hours put into their creation. Amazing video as always.
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10 hours of sharpening, i felt that deep in my soul as a knife guy. this guy is a legend.
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This is the first iron tool I've made. The method I used is reproduceable and relatively simple so the viewer should be able to get similar results to what I have. Watch the video with captions on to see information on the steps in more details. The ore I used is iron bacteria and it lives in soil everywhere though it only becomes visible when it becomes saturated with water. The viewer has probably seen it before when out hiking along streams but may not have known what it is. Any questions about the process let me know. Thanks.
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Daily reminder that this is one of the only "primitive tech" channels with ANY repute and he 100% deserves the audience he has because he's an absolute mad genius.
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Dear John, I'd just like to let you know (though by this video's response you've already probably understood yourself) how ecstatic this video has made me and so many others feel. I've been following you for years, got your (wonderful) book and I'm now eagerly awaiting the second installment. I believe I can speak for most of your viewers when I say that ever since I saw your first video I've been hoping against hope that eventually you would advance into ores and metals. And boy did you deliver. I hope you are making a good living out of this channel or at least this passion of yours. This is for me the pinnacle of youtube, videos that are not just mesmerizing and entertaining but will also stand the test of time due to the sheer nature of their content. Please, no pressure, but never leave us again.
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This is truly in the top .01% of YouTube channels. Thanks for all the entertainment and knowledge over the years
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This is an incredible milestone, the first iron tool on your channel. Congrats on reaching the iron age!
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From the way his hands were shaking taking the knife out of the mold, I bet he was crazy excited to have made a metal blade from nothing but the world around him and his hands! An amazing achievement!
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As a metallurgist I am in shock to see what you can do with no tools.
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thank you, I've been stuck in the stone age for a while and have been looking for a tutorial on how to advance, this helped me alot!
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The amount of effort and work to actually create an iron tool with basically sticks and stones in a solo effort is beyond incredible. Especially so when you realize how long he's been working at furnaces and smelting.
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The only primitive channel I watch regularly. Actually legit and genuinely fun to watch
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Wow, just astonishing. Can you imagine how much an iron knife like that would be worth back in caveman days? And we didn't even get to see him making all of the equipment necessary to make that blade. And to think, the manufacturing technology used to make modern knives, as well as the camera used to record this video and the computer to type out comments that are instantly visible all over the world... all came from THAT.
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I was waiting for this video for years hoping you would advance to iron age 😃
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This is one of the most monumental jumps in Primitive Technology videos, a true, tho crude, iron tool made from dirt, wood, and goo. Really amazing. And honestly, I'm shocked that dried iron bacteria is a ~3% grade iron ore.
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I'm seriously impressed that he basically devised a method for phytomining and refining iron with wood, dirt and water.
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Omg!! I'm finally viewing this with sub titles and it all makes soooo much more sense!! I'm going back to rewatch all the videos with subtitles so I can fully understand everything you are doing:) 😄😄
