Coal

We just learned about charcoal.

Another type of fuel used in blacksmithing is coal.

Coal is something that is mined or dug up from the ground.
It is made from old plants that turned to dirt and were buried and pressed underground for a long long time.
Blacksmiths use coal as a type of fuel to make other types of ashes that can be used to make different kinds of metal.


(from: wikipedia - coal)


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Charcoal

We just learned about Flux.

Another thing used in blacksmithing is charcoal.

When the blacksmith is making a fire in the blast furnace or the forge, they need something to burn very hot, very fast.
Charcoal is something that is made after burning up some fuel like wood, but not burning it up all the way.

After some of the water and other parts of the wood are burned up, the left over blackened pieces of wood chips are saved after being cooled, and then used later in large piles to burn up very fast and hot.


(from: wikipedia - charcoal)


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Flux

We just learned about Gangue.

Another part of smelting is something called flux.

When blacksmith has iron ore, they want to turn it into iron, and get rid of the gangue and turn it into slag.

Sometimes the only way to get rid of the gangue ore is to use another chemical called a flux.
There are a few different types of fluxes, but one that was used a lot is limestone.

When the iron ore is heated up in the blast furnace, the limestone melts and sticks to the gangue, and it all melts off and turns into slag, just leaving the iron behind.



(from: wikipedia - limestone)


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Gangue

We just learned about slag.

The glassy chemicals that the blacksmith tries to remove from the iron ore are called Gangue.

One kind of gangue that is seen a lot is the rock Quartz.


(from: wikipedia - gangue)


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Slag

We just learned about the Smelting.

When a blacksmith is smelting to get the iron out of iron ore, the left over stuff is called slag.

It looks kind of like glass, sand or rocks, and was usually thrown away as waste.


(from: wikipedia - slag)


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Smelting

We just learned about Pig Iron.

Removing metals like iron from iron ore is called smelting.

The rocks that have metal in them get heated up, and the metal ends up separate from the leftover waste.


(from: wikipedia - smelting)


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Pig Iron

We've now learned about Sponge Iron and Wrought Iron.

Another type of iron made in a forge is Pig Iron.

This is iron after it has gone through a blast furnace, it is stirred and stirred while heated.
There are a lot of things called impurities in the metals, that make the iron harder to work with or not look as nice.
After heating and stirring, the metal can be cooled and turned into little metal bricks nicknamed "pigs".

They got this nickname because the way the iron was made in molds, it looked like a bunch of little piglets with a larger mother pig.

When they broke off the small pieces from the mother sow, they called them pigs.



(from: wikipedia - pig iron)


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Blast Furnace

We just learned about the Wrought Iron.

Another tool for metal working is the Blast Furnace.

A blast furnace is like a giant bloomery, so it's a big chimney with ore going in the top, fire and air getting blown into the bottom, and it burns for a long time.


(from: wikipedia - blast furnace)


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Wrought Iron

We just learned about Sponge Iron made in a bloomery.

Sponge iron is then turned into wrought iron.
After the sponge iron is made, it has a bunch of holes in it and is very messy.
A blacksmith can take the sponge iron, hammer it a lot, reheat it and keep hammering away at it to get it in better shape, and that is called wrought iron.

When it is all finished, the iron looks nicer and is easier to work with and shape.


(from: wikipedia - wrought iron)


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Sponge Iron

We just learned about the Bloomery used to make metal from iron ore.

After the iron ore is put through the bloomery, it creates something called a bloom or sponge iron.

This usually has a bunch of holes in it, and needs to be hammered and put back in the bloomery before it can be used.


(from: wikipedia - bloomery)


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Bloomery

We just learned about the Iron Ore that is used to get iron for blacksmithing.

One way to get the iron out of that iron ore is using something called a Bloomery.

A bloomery is like a chimney, where a fire is made at the bottom with charcoal, iron ore is poured into the top, and there are are holes on the bottom that help bring in air for the fire to keep burning.


(from: wikipedia - bloomery)


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Iron Ore

We just learned about Heat Treatment.

Let's learn about how the blacksmith gets the metal for the forge.

The metal used most often by blacksmiths is iron, which comes from iron ore.

This is a type of metal that is found inside of other rocks and minerals, like hematite, goethite, limonite and siderite.



(from: wikipedia - iron ore)


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Heat Treatment

We just learned about Forge Welding.

Another way to work with metal is called Heat Treatment.

Some mixtures of metals will get harder or softer if you keep them really hot for a very long time.


(from: wikipedia - heat treating)


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Forge Welding

We just learned about the Punching.

Another thing blacksmiths do is called forge welding.

When a blacksmith has two pieces of metal that they want to stick together, like maybe a handle for a shovel, or a hilt for a sword, they get the two pieces of metal really hot, and then hammer them against each other.

The metal has to be so hot that it is almost melting into a liquid, and then the two metals get joined together.

In ancient times when people would make swords, they would take two types of metal and forge them together.
One type of metal would bend easily but never break, another type of metal would never bend, but could break.
By forge welding them together, they could make a sword that would never bend and never break.


(from: wikipedia - bladesmith)


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Punching

We just learned about blacksmith's Swaging.

Another thing they do is called Punching.

Remember we learned about the Pritchel Hole on the anvil.
When a piece of metal needs a hole in it, the blacksmith will hold the metal over the pritchel hole, and then hammer a hole into it with a shaped piece of metal called a punch.


(from: wikipedia - punch (tool))


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Swaging

We just learned about Upsetting in blacksmithing.

Another thing blacksmiths do is called swaging.

When a blacksmith needs to make a shape, a mark or a bend on a piece of metal that they can't do using just their hammer and anvil, they can use something called a swage block.

The swage block may have shapes on it, like a rounded cave that the metal can be pounded into, when they need to make a spoon.



Some swage blocks have rounded edges for helping to make a wheel, or half hexagon shapes for making a rod that is hexagon shaped.


(from: wikipedia - swage block)


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Upsetting

We just learned about the bending in a blacksmith shop.

Another thing a blacksmith may do is called upsetting.

This is where a piece of metal is held upright and hit like a nail.
If only the end is hot, then the metal at the end will flatten out and the metal will get shorter.


(from: wikipedia - blacksmith)


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Bending

We just learned about the Drawing Down.

Another way to work with the metal is called bending.

To bend the metal in a nice rounded shape, the blacksmith can use the horn of the anvil, use something called a bending fork into the hardy hole.
Then they hammer the metal to bend it.

(from: wikipedia - hardy tool)


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Drawing Down

We just learned about the Slack Tub.

Another thing a blacksmith does is called Drawing Down.

If a blacksmith wants to make some metal thinner, they can hit the metal sideways with the peen hammers or fuller that we've learned about and try and keep it the same width but make it longer.

If you think of the metal like clay, and you tried to push the clay out the long way to make it thinner, that is what the blacksmith is doing with the hammer and the metal when they are drawing.

After they have spread it out with the peen hammer or fuller, they use the flat part of the hammer with the anvil to flatten out any bumps they may have made in the metal.


(from: wikipedia - blacksmith)


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Slack Tub

We just learned about the Fuller.

Another part of a blacksmith's forge is the slack tub.
This is the large tub of water that the blacksmith dips the metal in to cool it off.

If there is a part of the metal that the blacksmith does not want to get shaped, they can cool it down, and then only the hot part will be shaped.

For blade making, like swords or knives, the blacskmith uses oil instead of water.


(from: wikipedia - forge)


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