Hurstwic: Converting Bloomery Iron to Steel in a Hearth Furnace

Archaeological evidence suggests that in the Viking age, bloomery iron was processed further in hearth furnaces to create steel. In this video, Emiliano Carrillo of Sun and Stars Forge demonstrates the process step by step, turning bloomery iron from an earlier Hurstwic iron smelt into steel, suitable for the edges of tools and weapons.
www.emilianocarrillo.com
www.hurstwic.com

[@sdunca4864]

Bravo and thank you for posting! I know its old- but as someone who is NOW getting into the curiosity of the refining craft- THANK YOU! Hopefully you folks post more! Thank you again and SUBSCRIBED

[@MrCrazyChemist]

This is great. I'm gonna try this with mild steel scrap I have laying around.

[@MrWTPunk]

Great to find most of the answers I was looking for. Thank you

[@DougErkkila]

Are there going to be follow up videos about the refining of the steel and forging of a tool from it? Would love to see the complete process!

[@thorleifr]

Sorry, no plans for these kinds of follow-up videos at this time. I think other people have already done them, if I am not mistaken.

[@bennyhill3642]

I sure would like to see you refine that!!! Great Vid Thank You!!!!

[@rodblomley8517]

This is the best explanation AND demonstration ive seen so far! Thank you for sharing this

[@stevesyncox9893]

Cool, thanks for sharing.

[@merrillmitchell9895]

Can you share where you found the information on the Japanese furnaces? Doing some tool making and want to stay true as possible.

[@JonasNeuenfeld]

Those bedammned "inches" again!

[@DarrenHerbertII]

Thank you Emiliano, really appreciate you sharing your wisdom! Is it possible to create large billets if using a larger hearth furnace and more overall charges? I'm trying to work out how to create a large block of high carbon steel that can be hardened and precision machined. Forge welding smaller pieces was my first thought but decided it wouldn't be strong enough.

[@BalliRiffill]

Intresting.

[@Skyhors3]

Interesting

[@pnwprospecting]

Link for the video with the bloomery?

[@simonphoenix3789]

makes me wonder why they didn't just go about trying to produce crucible steel if they were capable of getting temperatures high enough to melt steel.

[@nofunclub]

Subbed

[@embededfabrication4482]

they should be drinking beer and having more fun why doesn't the bloomery carbeurize the iron into steel? why does it need the second heating in the charcoal?

[@onanysundrymule3144]

In the bloomery furnace all the carbon is used to 'reduce' (ie attract) the oxygen from the ferrous oxide (the ore) to leave just iron alone (Fe) as the product.

[@shanefoster5305]

Pretty sure this doesn't work. Yeah it seems to be high carbon but once you work it, it is basically just mild steel. You can see this on Alec Steele's channel where he used this process to try and turn wrought iron into steel. kzbin.info/www/bejne/aXjVg6KCnclnfpI is the link.

[@Schrodinger555]

It has to do with the levels of phosphorous. It inhibits carbon uptake and promotes faster decarburization during forging. This bloomery iron had very low phosphorous as smelted, and gained quite a lot of carbon through this process. If you watch through Alec's video again you'll see them talk about phosphorous being the issue they faced.

[@shanefoster5305]

Schrodinger555 so how do you avoid the phosphorous problem?

[@keithboyle3905]

@@shanefoster5305 hearth refining does help drive off excess phosphorus.

[@onanysundrymule3144]

You need to start with a low phosphorous content iron ore (haematite).