11-25-2014, 03:25 PM
Rob that was fascinating, thank you for posting. Many years ago I visited the Wealden Iron Group in East Sussex, where they had built an experimental bloomery furnace in the woods near Tunbridge Wells, replicating what is believed to have been used locally for centuries up to Roman times. It was remarkably similar to what was being used there even down to a pair of bellows using animal skins, but the 'valve' was a bit different. I took a turn for 20 minutes pumping and it VERY tiring! Our 'bloom' stuck to the furnace wall :(
Andrew Mawson, proud to be a member of MetalworkingFun Forum since Oct 2013.