Iron production in the Viking Age - Lofotr Viking Museum (2003)

[spreadthetruth95]

3:00, lol I didn't know Vikings had Adidas shoes ;] good video, very self-explanitory

[ohvnaq]

oh and how do you separate the iron ore from the ashes after roasting?

[dramey03]

@ohvnaq i think you can put the ashes right in with them

[ohvnaq]

this is amazing! what type of rock did you use for the kiln?

[CaptainFluffy6644]

this is incredible...

[Kingofsomething87]

How much did the end product iron bar weigh?

[geirarej]

@Kingofsomething87 It weighed 600 g.

[Kingofsomething87]

@geirarej So much work for so little yield

[jacksonlefteye]

that ingot might as well be treated like solid gold after all that work, very nice video

[sonnetxi]

so much work to produce so little....that's it i give up

[whowantsabighug]

Thats right! You beat them slags!

[ArtistBlade1972]

How far above the floor is the tuyere in this furnace design?

[geirarej]

@ArtistBlade1972 It was 15 cm. from the floor.

[snezzzen]

I also wonder how patient and skilled people managed this complicated process. Maybe they have had another understanding of physics and chemistry than people today. May I ask you how you do the tempering of the knife after forging, it seems to me as a problem if the "C" content is too low...

[geirarej]

@snezzzen I am not sure I understand what you are asking for. If you mean how to turn iron into steel, this is done after the iron is produced in the smithy. Then carbon is added to the low carbon iron, through a series of heating and cooling the iron. I suggest you contact K.G. Linblad at Bäckedal folkehøgskole in Sweden for detailed information on this.

[snezzzen]

@geirarej You got my question. How to turn the low C iron into steel? A thing I never do with success in my hobby forge so far. Thanks for your answer and the folkehøgskole adress!

[Froddofromtheshire]

@snezzzen google oroshigane. 

[snezzzen]

@Froddofromtheshire First I found a japanese vegetable tool...also interresting ;) and then the steel.

Thank you!

[NANDO218]

@snezzzen i think they did have a better understanding. it took thousands of years for man to figure that out. even down to the coal making process. its only knowledge built on top of knowledge. now people dont know these things because corporations do this behind closed doors with specialists. back in the day, a child could watch his father doing this and he would know and possibly even find a better way to do it. now knowledge is almost completely compartmentalized.

[PikKirby]

I think the shovel kind of ruins the whole expreince.

[vikingskipdotcom]

Excellent video! Favourited!

[tulius01]

Seeing the rather small piece of steel you got in the end with how much iron ore did start out in the first place?

[geirarej]

@tulius01

If I remember correct, we started out with ca. 10 kg

iron ore.... and the result can be better than this, but it was

the first try in this furnace.

[mrtechnology100]

how old is this technic????

[geirarej]

@mrtechnology100

This technic was in use from around 600 AD - 1400 AD. The Scandinavians

used a slightly different technique in the period before that. Iron production was common in some parts of Norway around 3-500 BC.

[marklosextremus]

@mrtechnology100 about 1000 years

[EGCblackknight]

I've seen a few videos of this process, but none show the roasting of the ore. I was wondering what the purpose of this is.

Good video

[geirarej]

Thank you. The purpose of roasting the ore is partly to get all organic materials and humidity removed from the ore, but more importantly the ore itself is reduved from Fe3O4 to FeO. In other words already by the roasting you have a refined ore - a more pure product that goes inside the furnace. Theoretically it should be possible to put the raw ore into the furnace - and the same things happen there, but archaeology shows that roasting of ore is very common on iron age production sites.

[geirarej]

Most of these artefacts used, such as the tongues and the hammer is actually reconstructed based on archeoalogical finds from the viking age. But your question is very interesting, regarding the first people who managed to make the iron - and what type of tools and technology they were using. And how they came to think about something like this... it is quite a complex process..

[mikeminnesota]

Sure a hell a lot of work just for a little iron. In the video you have to wonder where got the hammer to forge the iron. Somehow had to make a hammer first. Suppose could have used a wood mallet to start with, make a hammer then could shape iron on a granite rock (not an anval) Did they have metal tongs or used sticks. Suppose had to make metal tongs asap to be a blacksmith.