Turning Iron Into Hearth Steel - Making Steel! (Forge Diaries: Ep. 16)

We are making high carbon hearth steel in an Aristotle furnace. This principles are simple: combine iron with a charcoal fire and get out high carbon steel perfect for making knives or swords. In practice, this was more difficult. The process here is quite different from smelting iron using a bloomery process in which ore is reduced to iron. We want to make steel by increasing the carbon of the mild steel or iron that is added to the furnace. In practice, this requires an interesting balance between heat and air flow that determines the size of the furnace. The resulting hearth steel needs to be refined by forge welding. It's great to have a power hammer to help with that. Once everything is done, this is great bladesmithing steel and makes beautiful knife and sword blades.
The Ace Up Our Sleeve:
Emiliano Carrillo at www.emilianoca... or / sunandstarsforge
Referenced videos:
Making Viking-Age Bloomery Iron in a Bloomery Furnace
• Making Viking-Age Bloo...
Refining and Carburizing Wrought Iron
• Refining and Carburizi...
Intro Music:
Evolution by Bensound.com
Pattern Welding Explained T-Shirts:
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Tee-Spring: bit.ly/3hOnhC7
A big thank you to the following Patreon patrons:
Andrew Hecker
Bill Nibz
C. H.
László Várady
Lucas Gourbeyre
Wayne Agostino
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Filmed on a Sony PXW‑FS7. Color grading in DaVinci Resolve.

[@tommyhill199]

Thank you for including the failed attempts. Walking us through all of your efforts is far more informative than a video that edits out anything that isn't perfect. This was very enjoyable. Well done.

[@toughgirl8770]

kzbin.info/door/jmI3TGKBNq75ibRh9VybqQ

[@ThakIronworks]

Really good production value......really clear dialogue...you are my favorite mad scientist....do more stuff

[@NielsProvos]

Glad you liked it. The knife looks really pretty as well.

[@DJRaffa1000]

@@NielsProvos really looking forward to the knife. your videos always give me a sence of calmness and relax me while watching awesome things take shape. Keep up the good work it really is amazing !

[@crazyDIYguy]

This is amazing, so transparent, with a bit of humor. True craftsman of your trade. A thing of pure beauty. I'm subscribing.👍💯😎

[@NielsProvos]

Makes me curious to know how Trap House and Garage go together for you 😎

[@crazyDIYguy]

@@NielsProvos I started out in a trap house with a garage 😄😄😄

[@andreasjonsson8075]

I love your Makita collection

[@RovingPunster]

As a spectator, I find the chemistry that underpins techniques like this fascinating. You'd think that something like anthracite coal would be a better choice for this than hardwood charcoal under the notion that more (higher carbon content and burns hotter) must surely be better, but NOOOOO ... there is apparently a bell curve on carbon absorption involved. Too little heat and you accomplish nothing, too much and you melt the iron and drive off the precious carbon, whereas if you land in the thermal sweet spot the iron can absorb some of it and enter steel territory (then you gotta homogenize it by working it) ... and of course how much carbon is absorbed seems to depend on a variety of factors like the ratio of surface area to volume on the iron, the presence or absence of other elements, where in fire it happens, etc. It's all very interesting.

[@toughgirl8770]

kzbin.info/door/jmI3TGKBNq75ibRh9VybqQ

[@Bear_Feces]

Awesome! I actually yelled "GOOOOOOOOD!!!" when I saw all the sparks from the last puck. I love your steel and iron making videos!

[@NielsProvos]

Glad you like them. It's a lot of fun to do these experiments.

[@brianmichaud3668]

I enjoyed your videos and wondering if you had used bloom steel to make crucible steel

[@mirokortemaa9060]

Great video. This channel got me interested with smithing years ago.

[@TDGCmote]

I love seeing all of this cool work you do. From the serpent in the sword to your newer content, this sort of stuff is what makes me feel inspired to start blacksmithing.

[@toughgirl8770]

kzbin.info/door/jmI3TGKBNq75ibRh9VybqQ

[@jans19772012]

Great teaching and video Niels, good to see the Craftsman at it's best learning as well. Do keep it up!!

[@lukethedrifter8302]

Wow, from all mild steel scrap. Very cool gus!👍🇺🇦

[@NielsProvos]

Glad you liked it. The resulting steel looks cool.

[@RIPBlueInk]

Fantastic Video. I was just trying to explain this to someone a couple of days ago. This vid will be very handy. Thanks

[@TharkisEQ]

Emiliano is a good ace to have up your sleeve =P I love hearth refined steel because it's the ultimate way to recycle your scraps and get the type of material you want for character when making your own steel but dont have the time or space to run a full smelt =)

[@NielsProvos]

I was surprised how little space it needed. The whole thing can be done in 40 minutes.

[@TharkisEQ]

@@NielsProvos Yup, and then it collapses down and fits inside a milk crate when you're not using it. amazingly compact !

Carburazing is not easy... Decarb is more that's why turing pig iron into steel was also done. Nice job you get a lot of carbon !

[@jarredwilson9085]

Great timing with this vid Niels! Giving this a crack in a few weeks :)

[@SenorTucano]

Excellent video - subbed! 👍

[@NielsProvos]

Thanks for the sub!

[@jukeboxhero1649]

I'm glad that making steel is not as hard as I first thought. That emiliana forge is the way to go for me

[@NielsProvos]

I was also surprised how well it works. Refining afterwards is a big pain.

[@jukeboxhero1649]

@@NielsProvos I need to see that video. What's the title?

[@NielsProvos]

I have an older video on that with blister steel.

[@Argi-em]

This is great! I’m definitely going to try this with steel swarf

[@ak47bobbarke]

Those sparks are amazing man, good job!!

[@NielsProvos]

Hehe. We liked them too.

[@fox111qc]

Wow congrats on that high carbon steel!

[@martintroy910]

Great video Neils. I saw a video of Emilio doing this a couple of days ago. I'm running one of these today with some bloom I made last August for a commission of an unusual historic sword type.

[@NielsProvos]

Good luck. Sounds like an exciting project.

[@HANDFORGED]

Wow, das ist doch super gelaufen. Irgendwann möchte ich auch gern mal meinen eigenen Stahl herstellen!!!

[@NielsProvos]

Macht auch Spass und braucht nicht sonderlich viel Zeit!

[@ThePillenwerfer]

Given that wrought iron is no longer commercially made doing that by accident wasn't wholly a disaster.

[@dylangoode5252]

love it man.

[@JackEverton101]

8:05 Him. “ there are no sparks” 8:06 Me. “Ummmmmmm......”

[@NielsProvos]

Not the right kind of sparks. Not high carbon sparks :-)

[@branni6538]

Well done on your achievement! Thanks for sharing this and for the detailed explanations. To see those sparks was very satisfying. Niles have you tried getting sparks from this steel with flint?

[@hudsonguimaraes8308]

Great intro congratulations!

[@NielsProvos]

Glad you like it.

[@HenryShiley]

Bit of a year late to see this. However, excellent instructional experiment video. I've been looking for blast furnace build ideas for raw iron smelted in another furnace. This is another step towards rock->steel for tool making.

[@NielsProvos]

It works surprisingly well given how easy it is. Good luck!

[@HenryShiley]

@@NielsProvos The hardest part is actually finding a way to make the kiln/furnace so you don't have to destroy it to get the metal. Most videos for Iron involve destroying some variation of earthwork furnace. Need experiments with a ceramic crucible catch at the bottom, I think.

[@NielsProvos]

For this particular method, I just need to mend the tyuere. Everything else just stays up. It's quite nice that way.

Nice intro aah

[@DanSalig-jq5mu]

The charcoal dust clogs the air flow. Like when you empty a bag of BBQ brickettes

[@nacsurte]

great video, ty!

[@kateiry4719]

1:13 A bunch of cops appeared when he opened up the carriage xD

[@lbdeuce]

outstanding

[@ahab145]

Hey Niels thanks for the helpful video, it's very well made and informative, I want to replicate the method myself and would like to ask you how long did it take for it to smelt in the last attempt and how much coal do you recommend me to buy. Thanks

[@NielsProvos]

It takes a lot of coal. Get more than you think you need. I don’t quite remember the times. I think the video gives you a rough idea.

[@ahab145]

@@NielsProvos thanks for answering

[@danielzbanca8629]

but how much is that in metric?

[@oneshotme]

I came over from the next video where you make a knife out of it. But I didn't get notified about it. I think I didn't because you don't put out very many videos and youtube supports those that do more so than those who don't

[@NielsProvos]

I think you need to explicitly select to be notified about each video. It's a setting.

[@footleg3310]

It's the little bell next to the subscribe button.

[@randycastro7641]

How did you buy iron ore

[@NielsProvos]

It isn't iron ore. It's regular mild steel.

[@asmaremengistu2449]

best

[@aserta]

Music audio, turn that down just a bee's di..mple lower, it's a bit difficult to hear your awesome voice right.

[@bilgaissa5831]

Can we use red bricks to build a forge

[@NielsProvos]

They will likely break apart. You want to use fire bricks.

[@cheapshotmike1091]

Can this be done with out a power hammer?

[@NielsProvos]

Yes. A big sledge hammer can do it too.

[@patricioberasategui7429]

hi i have one question can it work with sand iron instead of mild steel?

[@NielsProvos]

That's more suitable for a bloomery process. Check the video I am referencing for how that looks like. The process here does not have to deal with slag. For iron sands slag is something you have to deal with.

[@patricioberasategui7429]

@@NielsProvos now i understand why you use the mild steel. Thanks for the info and awesome videos

[@dave_in_florida]

so is it a 2 step process to make high carbon steel?

[@NielsProvos]

Using this process, yes.

[@hughjasses317]

@@NielsProvos can I make a larger amount of carbon steel, I want to make steel for a sword or an axe, or even a spearhead

[@NielsProvos]

@@hughjasses317 You need to do multiple runs and then consolidate them together. Definitely doable, just a lot of work.

[@hughjasses317]

@@NielsProvos Like how many days would it take to make 10 kgs of 1080-1095 carbon steel

[@NielsProvos]

@@hughjasses317 Let's say you work straight up 8 hours a day, you can probably do this in a week. That would be inclusive of refining and consolidation.

[@jmpattillo]

Great video but the background music is a little loud at times. Makes it harder to concentrate on what you are saying.

[@NielsProvos]

I noticed that too late but I agree. Unfortunately, I am about to go on a trip and wanted to get the video out. I have been working on it for the last two months.

[@jmpattillo]

Niels Provos It was really just that part near the beginning where the music picks up. Once you get past that it fades to the background.

[@ClassicGaualofa]

Who else got here by being curious about how metal is made?

[@nickwoo2]

only 100G loss so far! wow

[@mikemiller7231]

Sir please help

[@NielsProvos]

Help with what?

[@getmeoutofsanfrancisco9917]

"Instead what we are getting does not have any sparks" Meanwhile: *Huge sparks flying everywhere* Could someone explain to me what I am misinterpreting? He said there are no sparks but all I see is a blinding array of sparks.

[@Lobod287]

I'm also very curious about this. Actually came down to the comments to see if it was answered yet. My only assumption is that maybe there's different kinds of sparks? He does specify 'exploding sparks' though again I'm just assuming things and have little experience in forging and none in steel production.

[@erwinli6962]

Flowering sparks, rather than straight sparks, generally indicate a higher carbon content. Steel needs a high carbon content to be appropriate for knifemaking.

[@piotrwojciechowski7998]

Congratulations ;-) I know that you can carbonize steel by puting it with broaken glass and graphite in to glay jar sealed . And jest it up

[@LandersWorkshop]

Yeah I saw the Ulfburt sword made that way by the guru blacksmith from Wisconsin.

[@FourthWayRanch]

too much air flow blows away all the CO, how do you know it's not cast iron?

[@holidayla3840]

these thing using too much oxygen，sun light is only one green energy on earth

[@howardlovecraft750]

Seen all the likes, thought this ought to be a good one to watch.

[@samsmith2635]

6:33 is that LP or 02 line you have going into your tuyere?

[@NielsProvos]

Just air.

[@leoszes]

i think it was a good idea to start with something over sized, that way you had enough room to gauge the correct size for what you needed(?) thats how it was with my forge, it was too big and i started to line it with bricks to make it narrower until i found the optimal size, then i rebuild it.

[@baddonkey6876]

Can barely hear you man

[@NielsProvos]

Sorry. I thought I had audio sorted out by now.

[@DrVektor]

you have to use coke coil high calorie

[@NamBui-ot2ox]

What's in the oven?

[@Itfeelsmoist]

The Japanese have perfected this. Their furnace is huge and takes about 3 days and multiple people maintaining proper heat.