Anybody make their own steel?
- Thread starter Triq
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Mark Knapp
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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Some have, at a gathering at Euphrates hosted by Gary House they have been making tamahagane annually. I attended one year, we built the furnace and made the steel over a three day period. It yielded about 115 pounds of tamahagane and I purchased about 80 pounds to bring home.
The event was attended by about a dozen people. Bill Burke was the furnace master and director of the proceedings, under his instruction the burn was a huge success.
Bill Burke or Gary House may be able to help anyone wishing to have a knife made with hand made steel.
The event was attended by about a dozen people. Bill Burke was the furnace master and director of the proceedings, under his instruction the burn was a huge success.
Bill Burke or Gary House may be able to help anyone wishing to have a knife made with hand made steel.
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I know NOTHING about steel from scratch. And I am going to prove my ignorance by asking a question! If a fellow had a bunch of steel shavings from using a file, could he use those shavings to smelt (or whatever it is called) his own steel? I've been collecting my file shavings for a few years and was hoping to someday, somehow, make a bar of steel from them. Am I dreaming? Thanks.
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I'm no expert but I've done similar before. Look up the "Aristotle Furnace." You can't smelt in it from ore, but you can remelt low carbon steel and end up with high carbon steel. You still have to consolidate everything into a billet to homogenize the carbon content, and can add lower or higher carbon steel to your remelted steel to adjust. I never got that far, but I did have some fun melting old bailing wire and bottle caps and nails. Some day I'll do it again with larger goals in mind.
Out of curiosity, where would someone source a ton of charcoal and how much does it cost?
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I'm sure that is quite an experience. Maybe one of these days I'll find the time to attend a smelting. I'm curious, was the carbon content fairly even throughout the tamahagane or do you get it in chunks of high carbon & low carbon?
Gary
Mark Knapp
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No low carbon, we got high carbon and very high carbon. We burn most of it out while doing the refining. Bill says, near as he can tell it turns out like W1 after multiple folds and welds.
Mark Knapp
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The base for the furnace.
Fun was had by all, you guys help me with names, my memory aint'e what it used to be. The structure of the furnace is done and the plumbing for the tuyeres begins, 5 on a side.
Plumbing is done, a fire is set inside to dry the furnace.
While the furnace was drying I toasted yummy sausage.
Now we begin to make steel. A wheel barrow of softwood charcoal, a coffee can of hematite and a inch or so of sand in a coffee can for flux. That would burn down and we did it again every eight minutes.
That looks like Tom Ferry on this end helping Bill Burke dump in a load of charcoal.
Tom watching the furnace at full burn.
After 14 hours the fire was allowed to burn out and the furnace torn apart. This is a piece of the bloom of tamahagane.
We also forged some katanas, one is ready for for quenching.
Mark Knapp
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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- Dec 20, 2009
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Can't wait to see them.