Primitive Technology: Simplified blower and furnace experiments

Bark fan blade tied to rotor with bark cordage
Scribing a circle
Digging and making ordinary mud
Mud forms blower housing
Sticks form roof of housing
Mud seals roof
Closing roof over air exit. Note that the fan can still be removed for maintenance through the large opening in roof
Forming the furnace attached to blower
Hand fanning a wood fire
Adding a cord to a notch in the top of rotor and spinning using cord. This method is simpler than a bow mechanism
New method prevents blisters on hand
A grate from a previous kiln
Building up walls
Fire wood goes on top of grate not under it
Covering opening with broken tile
Making pot from creek clay
Iron bacteria (iron oxide) as a glaze
Painting pot with iron oxide
Tile plinth, pot and tile lid.
Pack wood around pot
Get fire going
Working the blower
Adding charcoal for more heat
Pot only slightly glazed. Probably reached stoneware temperatures.
New pot
Lid
Making a 3 sided plinth
An ash glaze this time
Placing them in the furnace
Using charcoal made previously
High yellow/White hot indicates 1200 c plus temperature
Pot slumped catastrophically in this heat (iron in the clay reduces melting point)
What's left of it has a nice ash glaze
New pot
More iron bacteria
Making an ore brick.
Dried iron bacteria and water
Charcoal powder
Wood ash
Pot goes on first then ore brick on top (to melt over pot without destroying it)
Ore brick melted over pot
Note the millimeter sized specs of iron (pause if necessary)
Picking out iron specks
Metallic Iron specks
Experiment results
Primitive Technology: Tiled Roof Hut Primitive Technology: Water powered hammer (Monjolo) Primitive Technology: Cord drill and Pump drill Primitive Technology: Chimney and pots Primitive Technology: Forge Blower Primitive Technology: Bow and Arrow Primitive Technology: Sandals Primitive Technology: Grass hut Primitive Technology: Reusable charcoal mound Prehistoric copper smelting in a pit!

Primitive Technology: Simplified blower and furnace experiments

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