Primitive Technology: One-Way Blower Iron Smelt & Forging Experiment

The new blower produces more iron than the previous one. Using the same amount of ore and charcoal, a similar sized furnace and the same bloom processing method it makes 51g as opposed to 31 g of the previous design. The continuous blower is a big improvement over the intermittent spinning design (and this was only the first try). It's the most iron I've made in a single smelt yet. The attempt to form a forgeable bar was disappointing although it was a better than expected casting. In the past I had successfully made forgeable iron by melting the prills in front of a blast rather than making a casting first. I will probably follow this method of decarburization rather than low temperature annealing in future. The waste iron isn't lost however, I should be able to recycle it in future smelts as I've got a small pot of it. The waste iron from experiments could be re-smelted alone or added to future smelts to increase the yield.

Jesus, with all this work for not even a single decent Iron tool yet, No wonder why it took so long for us to reach the iron age. Mad respect for all that dedication.

That moment 19:47 when iron hits the rock and you know, you just know, this isn't a sound nature makes, this is the sound of civilization

The dramatic arc from "It crumbles" to "The iron can be recycled by adding it to future smelts" is phenomenal.

The best part of every video is watching him start a friction fire with just his hands in under 30 sec. I’ve timed it, incredible and under appreciated. 🔥

Oh man, that first "clink" of the iron when it came out of the mold made it all worth it, it's been amazing watching this journey!

My heart when it shattered 😭For a golden moment, he had the best looking ingot he's made yet. But alas, success is not monumental, it's incremental! Godspeed, mud man.

I have a fair ammount of blacksmithing experience under my belt and forge welding different steel types together and I can't help but think that when you placed the iron balls into the clay form that using a form of flux to keep the oxygen off of the iron balls could help it keep from braking apart after you puddled it. Sand works as a decent flux because it will melt down I to a crude form of glass and even with extreme heat, won't allow the oxygen to it causing iron oxides that basically make a layer between the iron balls that will make it break apart when heated again. I have used plain old creek sand to forge steel together before and it worked just as good as Borax in my humble opinion.

Two ideas for a hotter fire--- 1) Insulate the firebox by adding a second wall 10cm away from the existing furnace wall. Fill the gap with loosely dropped in ash (not packed). 2) Preheat the air before it goes into the furnace (or into the blower). Maybe have a longer pipe going from the blower to the furnace and have a secondary fire under it to preheat it. Best of luck, each video is super exciting!

I will never tire of the unedited one-shot of him making fire by primitive means with such efficiency. Everyone else I see try to do something similar has to use a cut because it takes them so long.

Massive respect for all the unknown inventors of humanity, that developed many tools and methods before they could be eternized in books, stones or statues.

You know you’re watching quality content when you don’t want it to end. Best channel on YouTube, hands down.

I subscribed to this channel six years ago when he was in the stone age and now he's in the iron age. He's going pretty fast.

I find it simply unbelievable that you've been delivering all this content in such quality for years. What I find even more incredible is the fact that despite having 11 million subscribers, you don't incorporate any advertising for a sponsor. I believe you are not only a rarity among YouTubers but the only one!

Seeing that bar of iron, after all the work I've seen go into it over the years, is one of the most satisfying things I've ever seen.

Some notes: more "modern" (meaning medieval) bloomeries were built a lot higher and torn down, while still hot. The bloom was then taken out of the bloomery while still hot and immediately compacted, so that the slag was driven out and an ingot was formed. Also during the smelting (although you don't really reach high enough temperatures to turn the iron liquid) the slag was allowed to flow out through holes on the base. That is why in German this type of furnace is called Rennofen (rennen/rinnen - Ofen = flowing - kiln/furnace). I would try to purify the ore a bit more (so no ash) and to seperate the slag from the iron during the smelting. Good luck experimenting further. Also one more thing: during a visit in Spain I was able to see a iberic smeltery where they also siffed through sand and water to seperate small ironore particles out, which they then smelted down in bloomeries.

I appreciate that nothing he makes is so precious to him that he's not willing to break it and try again. After taking so much time to get that much iron, trying to forge it seems like a big next step. I think if something took that much work I wouldn't want to break it. But he builds and rebuilds forged trying to make them better.

It's so strange (from our perspective) to know today that it took hundreds, if not thousands of years to create these iron tools because we have them in abundance nowadays. That's why I love these uploads. They remind you of how much effort it took to get to where we are today. We should never forget that. So thank you for your contribution!

The thing I love about this guy is the way he takes a scientific approach to primitive technologies. He uses modern experimental methods to test ancient engineering techniques; always interesting to watch.

I hope this channel continues through the ages. I hope to eventually see him create his own electrical system. It would be really cool for follow it that long.