Assembling blower
A bark fiber string is simply used to drive the impeller in a reciprocating manner
Tuyere is put in place
25 cm wide, 25 cm deep pit is dug
Lined with mud
Mud and grass
Building a stack to a height of 25 cm above ground
Fire to help dry it
Finished furnace
Stacking charcoal mound with Eucalyptus wood
Sealing top with mud
Lighting mound
Fire burns back down into the mound against the draft
Volatiles exit the top while the wood converts to charcoal
When fire reaches the air entries, it's time to seal them with mud to prevent the newly made charcoal from burning
After a 2 hours and 30 minutes the top is sealed and the mound left to cool overnight
The next day the mound is opened and the charcoal is collected
Partially burnt timber is tossed aside to be reused in the mound next time
Dry mud is returned to the pit to be used next time
Useable charcoal is put into the basket
Charcoal is stored in the smelters hut out of the weather
Ordinary creek on land with normal iron levels
Ordinary iron bacteria (found on all continents) concentrate iron from the water table
Collecting iron bacteria
Add to storage pot
Crushing some charcoal to powder
1:1 ratio by volume of ore to charcoal
Mix with water
Form into 2.5 cm diameter pellets
Dry on furnace
Wood preheat for 30 minutes
Fill with charcoal
Add 10 pellets
Begin blowing furnace
3 hand fulls of charcoal every 7 minutes or so
10 more pellets
More blowing
Final charge added
Whole process took about 3 hours of blowing
Extraction procedure
Hammering slag flat to hopefully flatten iron
Mostly slag
But quite a few prills (small spheres) of iron
These are larger and more abundant than the yields of previous attempts I've made
See how the prills form on the surface of the slag. Microscopic pieces of solid/liquid iron must join together as the molten slag flows.
More prills
Separating iron prills from slag
These prills are mainly cast iron or steel due to the high carbon content of the initial ore pellets. Less char powder should be added in future
Iron prills and slag