Lee, Skip & All:

I'm delighted that such a spirited discussion is now beginning to take shape 
regarding the practice of experimental wrought-iron smelting.  When I learned 
that Thomas Powers and others are doing this, I became first intrigued, and 
then thought about trying my own hand at this ancient process.

Perhaps I should identify myself.  I am an emerging blacksmithing hobbyist 
who is interested in what are said to be the the superior working 
characteristics of wrought iron, and who would rather design my own new stock 
than to gamble on someone else's scrap.

As a blacksmith, my goal will be to produce wrought by the most efficient 
means available to me in order to optimize the possibility of an early 
success.  Once I succeed, the realization that I will have personally 
recovered what is essentially a lost technology will motivate me to then move 
in the direction of historical recreation.

Steve, I confess to being awestruck by your ability to fabricate Maille.  
Here is the hyperlink:

 <A HREF="http://www.crosswinds.net/~mailleman/">Forth Armoury</A> 

Cheers!

Michael Mandaville
_________________________________________________________________________

Lee Sauder & Skip Williams:
 
 We would like to take this opportunity to respond to your criticism of our 
bloomery smelting experiments as they appear on http://iron.wlu.edu . You 
have dismissed the relevance of our work without offering any substantive 
justifications for your opinion.
 
  Allow us to offer a brief overview of our work.
 
 Our main purpose has been to produce iron by the means at our disposal (as 
was the purpose of the ancient smiths we study). By doing so we have learned 
a great deal about the process of bloomery iron smelting. We have developed a 
real grasp of the temperatures and conditions, fuel consumption rates, ores 
qualities, and slag types etc. required, and the yields achievable... 
 
(edited for brevity)
______________________________________________________________________
 
 >>> Chris.Salter
 
    Not really, as their furnace has nothing to do with archaeology. The 
 comparisons with Peter Crew's work is unjustified as there aim was to 
produce 
 iron by any means that like a bloomery. Whereas, Peter's work used a 
faithful 
 replica of the furnaces found at Bryn Castell and Crawcellt, using the same 
or 
 similar ores and hand blowing. Peter's work is a careful scientific 
experiment 
 whereas, Saunder's and Williams is fun, the two should not be confused.
 _____________________________________________________________________

 Michael Mandaville:
 
 > This is my first posting.  Lee Sauder and Skip Williams have built an 
 > experimental wrought iron bloomery at Lexington, Virginia which I 
personally 
 > find to be quite interesting, and which seems to fall within the interests 
of 
 > this discussion group.  Their web site is located at the following address:
 > 
 > http://iron.wlu.edu/


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