Ah yes, a tempting target in ancient times, it would take a large effort from the entire group to take one down, but legend has it, they were so large they could feed a whole city for many weeks.
Idk how I’ve never seen this channel before, I’m goin through my own similar journey and having the hard work laid before me is really helping so thank you this is right down my alley!
I've done a few smelts using a similar design to your combined cob stack and bowl bellows. I added ONE extra feature tho. And its made a HUGE difference to the process. I used a thin piece of bark (set low on the inside of the bowl and worked into a recess) to create a one way valve. The difference it made in air flow. AND in shoulder pain was... Tremendous. Basically you take a strip of bark. or anything thin and flexible and bury the top half into the cob wall as you lift the leather the pressure difference lets the valve flex and let air in. But when you push down the valve is forced close and all the air goes out thru the stack. It makes the bellows so much more efficient.
Heck, even a simple hole that you use your free hand to cover and open seems like would help. But, he still got a good result. And certainly respect them for doing the work. It's something I'd love to try and play with sometime. Although kind of sad high quality ore is almost impossible to get anymore.
What I liked about all of your Videos the most is 'you show how you failed during the experimentation' this is where I learn about it a lot and get my doubts clear as the video goes on. Thank you for putting so much effort into video editing and everything, we as viewers are learning a lot from you. :)
Watching this makes you appreciate how far weve come as a society in terms of these metallic alloys and elements, and also, this also gives me some kind of excitement as to what is to come in the future in terms of material science. We are still a young species technologically-wise, and Im sure that there will be some some great breaktroughs in the next 500 to 1000 years, as long as we can get along with each other, geopolitcally wise.
I have a huge love for material. Just a love for all the coolness that materials are. I have to say, I wish we had hung out in the strictly material innovation period of human history longer before we also got into the digital innovation period.
Sorry to be cynical but the planet will shrug humanity off before we reach the stage where we are in harmony with the environment. "...but fire next time."
The real spook would be the cost actually being comparable to modern. "Now we can put the 3d printer I made all the way back in 2023 to good use in creating articulated prosthetics"
Pro tip for anyone making a pot bellows, tie a quarter or small rock in the center of the leather. This allows you to attach cordage to the middle of the leather and pull on the string instead of mashing the top of the leather by hand. More comfortable and efficient. On the underside of the leather make a hole with one hand, and poke the leather thru the hole. Drop a small circular object in the hole. Cinch your cordage around that object and attach to pot
@@Jormungrandrserpent depends on the composition of the iron. High silica or high phosphorus wrought iron is relatively corrosion resistant, as demonstrated by the Iron Pillar of Delhi.
@@troyporter6323, thank you for being the voice of reason. I see several comments about taking the tracks and I wonder if some of these people are even familiar with the laws they live under.
Working at a foundry, I learned a little about copper, carbon, manganese, zinc added to the furnaces. High side iron. loved it. Slagging furnaces at 2800 is like breaking through the surface of the sun. It does trip me out though when some say we had to use electricity to get it started. Lol no electricity. Good stuff. I like it.
The Japanese box bellows work really well. There were no railroad tracks or black beach taillings in the Iron Age. Just go to a river and find rocks that look rusty and use those. Smash them up. Also, make a lot of coal out of wood before you start smelting. Take a look at how the Japanese and the Persians used to make high quality steel.
Where I live, heavy very strongly magnetic rocks are quite common along the River that I live very close by to . I even found this rock that looked rusty in some areas and with a somewhat shiny black surface and moreover on one side it looked as if that rock was subjected to intense heat . It was strongly magnetic and quite heavy for its size ( around the size of a couple of segments of a peeled orange ) . I was hopeful that I found a meteorite but later was told that a small foundry was upstream from where I found that rock ,so I was left doubting . Even though, I decided to keep that rock " just in case" . I cannot recall whatever happened to that rock ,so I won't ever know .
@@themanformerlyknownascomme777 Peat bogs are carbon sinks, too. But, mostly from decomposing plant and animal carcasses. Nessie is always partially decomposed, but lives for eternity. She even has a stall on the Ark Museum in Kentucky. New Orleans is teaching the Loch Ness creature is a dinosaur, and thus no evolution. Dinosaurs are on the Ark in KY, with saddles. Nessie's stall is usually empty. 1 in 8 Americans are QAnon fans, and 62% think Noah was real. GOP POTUS candidates refused to raise their hand when asked if they would teach Darwin in schools.
I've been using coal that is found by train tracks here in north Carolina, so I was not surprised at your finding iron ore pellets there. Thanks for showing this!
This reminds me of my youth at our placer gold mines in B.C. You wouldn't believe the minerals you can find within a 20 minute drive of the hamlet of Wells. The beach sand of Jack-o-clubs lack is literally made of iron ore (iron sulphide to be specific, aka, fools gold or pyrite). It's incredibly heavy and very beautiful. Our mines were only a few miles from the townsite and in that small area you could find shales of all sorts, pyrites, the biggest chunks of quartz you've ever seen (I still have a piece that's probably a couple thousand pounds in front of my house from there), etc. In retrospect, it was a good place to spend the summers as a kid, despite hating it at the time.
@@Willrocs: Depends on how you look at it really. As a kid, I was often terribly bored. But in retrospect, it was such an amazingly beautiful place. I guess that's life though. Six of one and half a dozen of the other. Lol!
Speaking specifically of Quartz, check out “The Cave of Crystals” that has the biggest (selenite) crystals in the world. They surpass the largest Quartz on record by almost double the length; the pictures are stunning.
Heya, for your bellows. Use some hollowed stick (bamboo) with a flanged end. You don't want the inside hole bigger than your thumb. This way when you pull up on the bellows you bring in cooler, richer air from away from the flame into the bellows. The way they were working on this episode, I'm afraid they were pulling in a lot of hot and/or combusted air. The quality wasn't as good so you weren't able to get the fire hotter, faster. If you can get in the quality, rich, oxygenated air that doesn't have CO, CO2, or other derived pollutants then you can get your fire hotter. Just a minor change on the bellows. If you don't have a flanged tube-like object then put a slit in your leather, wet it, and then put in your tube. Tie it tight as possible so when the leather dries, it shrinks, and acts like a natural grommet. For a future episode, either flip the bellows upside down to use a stick to stand on it OR keep them like they are but make the bellows linked on foot pedals (lack of a better term) so that you can just "walk" on them so one presses down when you step down on the left, then the right, etc.... This will be less painful on the arms, knees, and hips so you aren't sitting weird or get tired faster. Quality over quantity.
Welcome to the Iron Age!! I’ve really been enjoying this series since you started it, I hope you guys make a hammer first out of the ore , insanely useful for future projects/tool making
18:24 100% accurate. I work in the semiconductor industry where we create organo-metallic compounds out of rare-earth metals to supply some of the world's largest electronics manufacturers. In my first two months alone, I worked with at least a dozen different metals: Zinc, Titanium, Zirconium, Palladium, Hafnium, Tungsten, Osmium, the list goes on. Most eventually end up in the processor chips for your phones and computers in conduits 1000x thinner than a hair on your head. Truly crazy stuff.
Especially the part where someone who we didn't see do anything holds up the bloom and says "I made this" lol. You had the idea, but you used other people's drive. Bet he would have said it was too hard to do alone haha.
There are countries in Africa that use stolen oil and refines them using a very dangerous and cheap technique of refining that killed a lot of people trying to refine oil using it.
I actually picked up both of Dr. Dartnell's books when you had introduced them while working on clear glass a while back. Origins was fantastic, one of my favorite reads in the last few years. I'm a biologist, so I was aware of a few of those geologic events (namely the Great Oxidation Event that created the banded iron deposits), but it was really mindblowing just how deeply ingrained the geology of the planet has been with the development of human history. Still working through The Knowledge. It was actually that clear glass project that was how I found this channel in the first place, through your collaboration with the late Grant Thompson from TKOR, and Cody.
I came to this video to understand how early civs created iron. Now I know they collected the ore from railway leftovers, and used electricity powered ball mills. I feel enlightened.
Thank you for that little tid-bit on the first pair of tongs. I'd never heard that one. Nice to see a fellow Minnesotan succeed on UA-cam. Great channel שלום
Fun fact, even though bronze tools are less durable than iron when used in the short term, and needs constant maintenance, bronze is much more able to preserve through time. Archeological digs often discover large quantities of millennia old bronze tools, art, and weapons in pristine condition, whereas their iron equivalents have long rusted into dust.
A handheld electromagnet could be useful if you go by the railroad tracks again. Not sure how magnetic they are but might be efficient for further experiments
Growing up in an iron mining town, the first thing I thought of when you were looking for iron ore was the train tracks. I remember as a kid, the tracks looked like they were built on nothing but iron ore pellets there were so many on the ground.
We had a section of tracks by my childhood home where a huge pile had been dumped, we would go there once a week to load up on ammo for our slingshots.
8:22 that would actually be a cool tactic if they use it as a hand grenade instead of putting it on a pike and throw the pressurized bamboo cylinder at the enemy. I think dozens of people throwing these at an incoming army when it's close enough would be pretty intimidating with stuff exploding around their legs creating shrapnel and smoke, even if it doesn't do much damage I can see the average untrained infantry be absolutely horrified if they've never seen something like this. I wonder if they've actually done that at some point during the medieval times.
Funny that you have mentioned the history of metal smelting,about you and others don't know anything.For a start metal smellting was not discovered in anatolia,or by anatolians.The real truth about metal smellting in europe begins with slavs,in 5500BC Vinća/Winncha slavic bronze age civilization.And in serbia,the oldest metal and pottery owens still can be found,after 7530 years.
Not at all actually. Those hair products only work when u still have hair, male pattern baldness is permanent* hair follicles don't generate back. You use the stuff to prevent becoming bald. The only way to get bald spots back is a hair transplant.
There's a method of making bellows that doesn't utilize leather and is essentially just a piston. I bring this up because you said leather is a requirement when it's more of a strong suggestion. You have a hollow cylinder with a hole at the bottom for air. You put a disc with a long handle inside it with a trapdoor on the inside so when you're pushing it pushes air through the tube and when pulling it pulls air from the top of the cylinder instead. That's basically it.
@@boid9761 Reheating it to forging temperatures takes a lot of time and fuel, also each of the individual iron nuggets in the bloom becomes coated in an oxidation layer which will make forging them together extra hard. Most of this can be avoided by forging the bloom as soon as it comes out of the bloomery furnace.
@@boid9761 Not to mention I didn't see them poke a hole for slag to leak out so there is probably a ton of slag in that steel and from what I've learned slag is insulating making it that much harder to heat up later plus the fact that bloomery steel tends to be impure to begin with now with all that slag ? That thing is gonna be a B**** to forge weld later. Also there is almost no way to get pure iron from that method steel was definitely found first so pure iron will come later.
It's funny, My brother and Myself growing partly up in the countryside. Started trying to make spears, stone arrowheads, hatchets, and bows. We experimented with techniques, even using tree sap, and hardening it in fire and cooling it suddenly. We discovered soaking wood branches in cold creeks for a week made it very pliable. And we would use it to secure things. And when it dried, it would stay in the shape needed. And we found pounding it, we could make a type of cloth, paper like material. And thought this could be made into clothing if we were inclined to make a bunch. Even baskets. Digging deep into the side of the creek ravine, and down into the water we discovered a very passable clay. And made by hand some cup like bowls. We let them dry and actually believe we could have fired them and made them serviceable. Around that time I started using a magnet. It was on a Keychain. And I noticed when I picked it up it was covered in iron fillings. And I started collecting a bunch. I wondered it people discovered a lodestone and had a similar experience. We intended to see if we could smelt them into a bloom. While firing the clay cup like bowls. But alas, that Summer ended and we never went back. However, 10 years later some locals had their reputations tarnished claiming they found an archeological site. My brother and Myself went: "Oops!" LOL!
With respect your ol lady is bad to the bone. Its really nice to see a couple doing something this cool that takes alot of dedication and work. Respect. Great video
When working with clay for large projects, I suggest taking a look at the channel primitive technology. You have to let it almost fully dry before going onto the next layer. the way you were doing it, it was too wet, and therefor would collapse onto itself.. The only time you can really ignore that is if you build it around a frame. Then, when it's completed around it, burn away the frame. This will bake it as well as remove the frame at the same time. just clean out by hand and bam! you're good
Aww heck yeah I've been waiting for this for a long time, since watching Good and Basic's attempts. One thing you didn't mention: do those pot bellows have valves in them? If they don't, then I imagine if you're alternating them, one will be sucking in the air the other just blew out.
This video just saved me a lot of time and trouble. I'm a bladesmith and I'd like to make a quality knife from materials sourced from my own land. I have access to a creek bed with unlimited blue clay. I know I can do it. I may even try the ancient Japanese method after collecting black sand from the creek. Theres a lot of it and it sticks to magents really good. I've saved about 10 lb over the years. I was lost on where to begin lol. This helps. Thank you.
The end makes me think about how rich society is today. Walk through your house and see how many metal things you can find. Even people in the medevial often had very few metal possessions unless they were wealthy (or maybe specialized like a blacksmith)
Go even further and see how difficult it is to learn to just make a proper nail by hand and see why only the wealthy could afford more than just the bare necessary items to be made of metal. Medieval carpentry typically used wooden pegs instead of nails since they were so costly and only used them when absolutely necessary
@@josiahtheblacksmith467 Yeah, that's why in the right places during medieval times, there was some really masterful carpentry. They needed stuff to be quality and last, but it would take more time to make some proper metals than it is to learn a complex wood joint.
@@Masa6x lots of different specialties need to come together to make seemingly simple things possible. Stone cutters, potters, carpenters, Smiths, all very important and complicated in their way especially at the upper levels of their respective art. That being said modern people rarely understand even basic metallurgy unless they are in the metal industry. Most modern people don't understand the uses of different types of wood or stone either, so in some ways our ancestors were more knowledgeable in their field than we are even though we have the benefit of modern education and resources.
Probably never, it was very clearly stated when he started this project that safety equipment would not be a part of it, because well you know, safety.
Plague dr masks were invented in the 1600s, and modern hazmat suits were invented for WW1. HTME is up to about 600 BCE now, so still quite a lot of history to cover until then
I grew up in Duluth, live Northeast now. In the summer of 1965, between 7th & 8th grades, I took a history class at the St. Louis County museum which was on East Superior St. at the time. We took some class trips, one of which was to the Tower-Soudan Mine the day before it opened and became a state park. Our guide told us we couldn't tell anyone because the governor of the state had the "official" opening ceremony the next day.
Interesting. In Southeast Texas we have "redbeds" of iron ore at the surface from Early Permian-age. They were mined in late 1800's till 1920'ish. Very easy to dig. There are huge piles of it. Often used for rural roads. May have to try to do some smelting.
Let's see if I remember this correctly: C + O2 -> CO2 CO2 + C -> 2 CO 3 CO + Fe2O3 -> 2 Fe (l) + 3 CO2 (g) => The burning of the Carbon (coal) does not simply liquify the metal ore, but it also produces carbon monoxide, which acts as the reducing agent necessary to reduced the Iron-oxide into elemental Iron.
This is such a cool video series/channel idea. I am sure that I could find the answers to the whole 'tech tree' by googling each of them individually, but just like in video games, what fun is it to always play with everything unlocked that you did not do yourself? This is almost like Runescape IRL lol. You put a certain amount of hours in, and gather enough materials... then you can once you have enough XP you level up to unlock more efficient and stronger materials. Super cool. Well, you got a new sub.
That was our original plan, but taconite isn't actually as magnetic in its final form. The last step in their production is roasting them to turn the magnetite to hematite, which isn't magnetic
Head to keeps.com/HTME to get 50% off your first order of hair loss treatment.
first
You should try to look into japanese iron refining.
hi! notice me!
I was the one who asked why not build a horse carriage before a cycle and you responded to me on the toilet paper livestream
Love the video. I been a blacksmith for 3 years now and something that you will need to learn is forge welding because you got a lot of to do. LOL
So, were here at this railroad and we found that these rails are made completely out of iron so were just gonna pop off few bars.
Pog
@@nexfur Stop
@@imapigeonyoupeasant1489 Pog
pog champ
Better yet you could take a couple train carts and melt them down.
Finally. Tongs. No more messing around with chopsticks.
I just wish he would make some wooden spoons and just a general tool refinement episode
werecatninja I like this idea!
@@werecatninja I think now that they have unlocked iron its definitely time for an upgrade.
@@n1elkyfan Achievement Get! Getting a upgrade!
Warlord_Pipsqueak but cast iron is very brittle and tongs bend to move.
Ah yes, very clever to use the residue of the still free ranging wild freight trains.
Ah yes, a tempting target in ancient times, it would take a large effort from the entire group to take one down, but legend has it, they were so large they could feed a whole city for many weeks.
@@jwaffe assuming they were preserved right
Was watching them pick up little balls and thinking how useful a speaker magnet in a plastic bag might be lol.
So much for a reset button..
@@lipeeno to be fair, it is quite hard to find iron ore without it being someone else's property, free and natural.
the amount of decated time, effort, research and will to make these videos is honestly incredible.
Idk how I’ve never seen this channel before, I’m goin through my own similar journey and having the hard work laid before me is really helping so thank you this is right down my alley!
"I made this"
4 people working the bellows: "I'm sorry what?"
we can let him have his proud father moment lol
Pog
Next step in human history: Slavery
@@coffeewind4409 paid labor*
@@coffeewind4409 *indentured servitude
I've done a few smelts using a similar design to your combined cob stack and bowl bellows. I added ONE extra feature tho. And its made a HUGE difference to the process. I used a thin piece of bark (set low on the inside of the bowl and worked into a recess) to create a one way valve.
The difference it made in air flow. AND in shoulder pain was... Tremendous.
Basically you take a strip of bark. or anything thin and flexible and bury the top half into the cob wall as you lift the leather the pressure difference lets the valve flex and let air in. But when you push down the valve is forced close and all the air goes out thru the stack. It makes the bellows so much more efficient.
Came here to say the same thing. I thought "Man, a reed valve on those pots would probably make a huge difference!"
Heck, even a simple hole that you use your free hand to cover and open seems like would help.
But, he still got a good result. And certainly respect them for doing the work.
It's something I'd love to try and play with sometime. Although kind of sad high quality ore is almost impossible to get anymore.
After watching a recreation of an African forge I thought the same thing but the valve would be unnecessary if the bellows were pumped in succession.
Achievement reached: “Acquire Hardware”
Ah yes
The man of culture himself
Yesss
indeed
Next video
Achievement reached: "Isn't it Iron Pick?"
What I liked about all of your Videos the most is 'you show how you failed during the experimentation' this is where I learn about it a lot and get my doubts clear as the video goes on. Thank you for putting so much effort into video editing and everything, we as viewers are learning a lot from you. :)
Watching this makes you appreciate how far weve come as a society in terms of these metallic alloys and elements, and also, this also gives me some kind of excitement as to what is to come in the future in terms of material science. We are still a young species technologically-wise, and Im sure that there will be some some great breaktroughs in the next 500 to 1000 years, as long as we can get along with each other, geopolitcally wise.
I have a huge love for material. Just a love for all the coolness that materials are. I have to say, I wish we had hung out in the strictly material innovation period of human history longer before we also got into the digital innovation period.
I bet in next 10-20 years we gonna advanced literally like punch of tech like when cellphones computers came and changed everyting
Sorry to be cynical but the planet will shrug humanity off before we reach the stage where we are in harmony with the environment. "...but fire next time."
They're gonna have to depopulate you first. It's the first major step. Geopolitically speaking. ☝️💀
Seriously. This was way harder than I thought it would be.
10:30 Who else thought he was about to start tearing up abandoned railroad tracks?
Pog
@@nexfur Stop!
I instantly thought of the movie: October Sky
I thought he was gonna pick up the railroad spikes. I used to walk the railroad and collect all the loose spikes.
@@iconic762 well I mean, he's looking for iron ore, not iron, if he started at iron it would kindof defeat the purpose of smelting it lmao
"Anyone wanna try this?"
Goes to chill in the background, while the rest works...
NoobForSoup learned it from Tom Sawyer
Could have introduced the rest of the people though
Everybody gansta till htme starts surpassing modern technology.
"Hol up how did you make a teleporter in 2 weeks"
“In our next episode, watch how we make a fusion reactor with our new Iron Age tools!”
he just starts following mainstream science fiction as if it were real
And now...the microchip.
The real spook would be the cost actually being comparable to modern.
"Now we can put the 3d printer I made all the way back in 2023 to good use in creating articulated prosthetics"
Super fortunate you haven't had sea peoples to contend with at the same time. Still incredibly impressive and insightful. Thanks for sharing!
Pro tip for anyone making a pot bellows, tie a quarter or small rock in the center of the leather. This allows you to attach cordage to the middle of the leather and pull on the string instead of mashing the top of the leather by hand. More comfortable and efficient.
On the underside of the leather make a hole with one hand, and poke the leather thru the hole. Drop a small circular object in the hole. Cinch your cordage around that object and attach to pot
So we found this natural source of high grade iron *proceeds to pull out an angle grinder and cut up the train tracks*
LOL, I have bad news for you, most train tracks are made of steel these days because iron corrodes in the rain and steel less so.
I hate to think how many boxes of angle grinder disks it would take to free up a chunk of railroad track.
not to mention that taking rails from the train tracks is a federal offense
@@Jormungrandrserpent depends on the composition of the iron. High silica or high phosphorus wrought iron is relatively corrosion resistant, as demonstrated by the Iron Pillar of Delhi.
@@troyporter6323, thank you for being the voice of reason. I see several comments about taking the tracks and I wonder if some of these people are even familiar with the laws they live under.
And lo, on the end of the 6th day, God created tongs. He click-clacked them together twice, and it was good.
You GOTTA give em a couple test clicks
Reminds me of anvils in Dwarf Fortress.
Ah yes, my favorite bible verse.
@@roland4240 *Torah
this reminds me of rowan atkinsons standup comedy sketch
Dear Andy and HTME team,
Thank u for making quarantine interesting.
Just go outside stop falling for the bullshit
This video deserves an award
Working at a foundry, I learned a little about copper, carbon, manganese, zinc added to the furnaces. High side iron. loved it. Slagging furnaces at 2800 is like breaking through the surface of the sun. It does trip me out though when some say we had to use electricity to get it started. Lol no electricity. Good stuff. I like it.
So exciting! I'm glad it turned out so well, and thanks for having us along!
You bet!
You guys are great too! I'm not sure how I found you, but I'm happy to see your videos on my feed as well as new collabs like this
Sweet! Cool to see you connect with Good and Basic. Doing an iron smelt with them was tons of fun.
The Japanese box bellows work really well. There were no railroad tracks or black beach taillings in the Iron Age. Just go to a river and find rocks that look rusty and use those. Smash them up. Also, make a lot of coal out of wood before you start smelting. Take a look at how the Japanese and the Persians used to make high quality steel.
Where I live, heavy very strongly magnetic rocks are quite common along the River that I live very close by to . I even found this rock that looked rusty in some areas and with a somewhat shiny black surface and moreover on one side it looked as if that rock was subjected to intense heat . It was strongly magnetic and quite heavy for its size ( around the size of a couple of segments of a peeled orange ) . I was hopeful that I found a meteorite but later was told that a small foundry was upstream from where I found that rock ,so I was left doubting . Even though, I decided to keep that rock " just in case" . I cannot recall whatever happened to that rock ,so I won't ever know .
the name for that is "bog iron" it was also very popular In the north of England.
The addition of limestone is what made it actually work to melt instead of hammering it in to steal
@@themanformerlyknownascomme777 Peat bogs are carbon sinks, too. But, mostly from decomposing plant and animal carcasses. Nessie is always partially decomposed, but lives for eternity.
She even has a stall on the Ark Museum in Kentucky. New Orleans is teaching the Loch Ness creature is a dinosaur, and thus no evolution. Dinosaurs are on the Ark in KY, with saddles. Nessie's stall is usually empty.
1 in 8 Americans are QAnon fans, and 62% think Noah was real. GOP POTUS candidates refused to raise their hand when asked if they would teach Darwin in schools.
I've been using coal that is found by train tracks here in north Carolina, so I was not surprised at your finding iron ore pellets there. Thanks for showing this!
This reminds me of my youth at our placer gold mines in B.C. You wouldn't believe the minerals you can find within a 20 minute drive of the hamlet of Wells. The beach sand of Jack-o-clubs lack is literally made of iron ore (iron sulphide to be specific, aka, fools gold or pyrite). It's incredibly heavy and very beautiful. Our mines were only a few miles from the townsite and in that small area you could find shales of all sorts, pyrites, the biggest chunks of quartz you've ever seen (I still have a piece that's probably a couple thousand pounds in front of my house from there), etc. In retrospect, it was a good place to spend the summers as a kid, despite hating it at the time.
Sounds like a good time.
@@Willrocs: Depends on how you look at it really. As a kid, I was often terribly bored. But in retrospect, it was such an amazingly beautiful place. I guess that's life though. Six of one and half a dozen of the other. Lol!
Speaking specifically of Quartz, check out “The Cave of Crystals” that has the biggest (selenite) crystals in the world. They surpass the largest Quartz on record by almost double the length; the pictures are stunning.
Heya, for your bellows. Use some hollowed stick (bamboo) with a flanged end. You don't want the inside hole bigger than your thumb. This way when you pull up on the bellows you bring in cooler, richer air from away from the flame into the bellows. The way they were working on this episode, I'm afraid they were pulling in a lot of hot and/or combusted air. The quality wasn't as good so you weren't able to get the fire hotter, faster. If you can get in the quality, rich, oxygenated air that doesn't have CO, CO2, or other derived pollutants then you can get your fire hotter. Just a minor change on the bellows. If you don't have a flanged tube-like object then put a slit in your leather, wet it, and then put in your tube. Tie it tight as possible so when the leather dries, it shrinks, and acts like a natural grommet.
For a future episode, either flip the bellows upside down to use a stick to stand on it OR keep them like they are but make the bellows linked on foot pedals (lack of a better term) so that you can just "walk" on them so one presses down when you step down on the left, then the right, etc.... This will be less painful on the arms, knees, and hips so you aren't sitting weird or get tired faster. Quality over quantity.
StairMaster bellows is a great idea. I wonder if bones after the marrow is scraped out could offer a tube?
Welcome to the Iron Age!! I’ve really been enjoying this series since you started it, I hope you guys make a hammer first out of the ore , insanely useful for future projects/tool making
YEAH WE'RE IN THE IRON AGE!!!!
Pog
@@nexfur Stop!
Pog
18:24 100% accurate. I work in the semiconductor industry where we create organo-metallic compounds out of rare-earth metals to supply some of the world's largest electronics manufacturers. In my first two months alone, I worked with at least a dozen different metals: Zinc, Titanium, Zirconium, Palladium, Hafnium, Tungsten, Osmium, the list goes on. Most eventually end up in the processor chips for your phones and computers in conduits 1000x thinner than a hair on your head. Truly crazy stuff.
Maybe I am being presumptive but, I love that your partner is onboard and supportive of your obsession. New machinery is made with old machinery.
Ah yes the "involuntary workforce" really makes this historically acurate
Especially the part where someone who we didn't see do anything holds up the bloom and says "I made this" lol. You had the idea, but you used other people's drive. Bet he would have said it was too hard to do alone haha.
I can't wait to see him trying to refine oil...
I can’t wait for them to build a smartphone!
I’m stoked for his uranium mining and enrichment for power plants
There are countries in Africa that use stolen oil and refines them using a very dangerous and cheap technique of refining that killed a lot of people trying to refine oil using it.
Mr Teslonian has a 1 hour video on gasoline I haven't watched, but he also has a video of collecting liquid fuel from wood gassifiers.
yes, and building the first reactor is going to be tricky too I would suspect. lol
I actually picked up both of Dr. Dartnell's books when you had introduced them while working on clear glass a while back. Origins was fantastic, one of my favorite reads in the last few years. I'm a biologist, so I was aware of a few of those geologic events (namely the Great Oxidation Event that created the banded iron deposits), but it was really mindblowing just how deeply ingrained the geology of the planet has been with the development of human history. Still working through The Knowledge.
It was actually that clear glass project that was how I found this channel in the first place, through your collaboration with the late Grant Thompson from TKOR, and Cody.
I came to this video to understand how early civs created iron. Now I know they collected the ore from railway leftovers, and used electricity powered ball mills. I feel enlightened.
Thank you for that little tid-bit on the first pair of tongs. I'd never heard that one.
Nice to see a fellow Minnesotan succeed on UA-cam. Great channel שלום
Did this with my son for a science project a couple years ago made a whole smelting thing in the backyard
learning science from school:😐
learning science from books:🙂
learning science from dr.stone:😄
learning science from htme:🤯
episode 500: Using my steamhammer to forge steel armor for my battleship
only need about 50 thousand metric tons of it lol
Just discovered this channel, instantly hit subscribe. This is exactly what I need in my life! 😁
This is so cool, but man, the labor involved is insane.
Lol "Meteoric iron was to small to make any major 'Impact'" hahaha
Did u ever find out who smelt it
Twas he that dealt it.
@@scottyj6226 Oh, how scandalous
Welcome to the Iron Age! Soon you'll be making tools that can last a lifetime :)
Once he gets good at it
Why just one lifetime?
You know hat that means! Faster vids!
Pog
Fun fact, even though bronze tools are less durable than iron when used in the short term, and needs constant maintenance, bronze is much more able to preserve through time. Archeological digs often discover large quantities of millennia old bronze tools, art, and weapons in pristine condition, whereas their iron equivalents have long rusted into dust.
As soon as you got to the train tracks I was like "oh no" cause thought you were gonna jack the spikes. Lol
A handheld electromagnet could be useful if you go by the railroad tracks again. Not sure how magnetic they are but might be efficient for further experiments
Growing up in an iron mining town, the first thing I thought of when you were looking for iron ore was the train tracks. I remember as a kid, the tracks looked like they were built on nothing but iron ore pellets there were so many on the ground.
You could just get a big magnet and pick it up, I bet. I'm jealous!
@@Just_Sara Nope. We tried that, and they dont stick. Gotta pick em up by hand.
We had a section of tracks by my childhood home where a huge pile had been dumped, we would go there once a week to load up on ammo for our slingshots.
We’d use the iron pellets in our slingshots.
@@davidvines6498 you dang kids got one more warning before i pelt you with ma iron ore!!!
Andy: We need tongs to make tongs
Me: *tree punching intensifies*
Haha!
They developed Iron Smelting and...uh..."unpaid labour"
8:22 that would actually be a cool tactic if they use it as a hand grenade instead of putting it on a pike and throw the pressurized bamboo cylinder at the enemy. I think dozens of people throwing these at an incoming army when it's close enough would be pretty intimidating with stuff exploding around their legs creating shrapnel and smoke, even if it doesn't do much damage I can see the average untrained infantry be absolutely horrified if they've never seen something like this. I wonder if they've actually done that at some point during the medieval times.
Thank you for doing this! If I, as a child,saw this it would have changed my whole view of history.
Funny that you have mentioned the history of metal smelting,about you and others don't know anything.For a start metal smellting was not discovered in anatolia,or by anatolians.The real truth about metal smellting in europe begins with slavs,in 5500BC Vinća/Winncha slavic bronze age civilization.And in serbia,the oldest metal and pottery owens still can be found,after 7530 years.
I've been to that beach. I didn't know the sand was magnetic. I just know it hurt my feet. 😂
Next time something bothers you or makes you hurt, stop for a second and concider that maybe there is an incredible history to it :)
@@thomas.thomas
*chopping onions, crying*
What is _your_ history...
@@thomas.thomas next time something bothers you or makes you hurt, stop for a second and consider if its magnetic :)
That’s so true
When he went to the train tracks I actually kind of thought he'd start ripping up abandoned rails for some reason
Is it just me or is it ironic that his sponsor is a hair growth company but most his audience is under 20
Man, imagine being 20 and bolding, such a person would be really desperate and would buy any fake shit they offer them to stop it.
I have just turned 20 and I’m literally fucking bald
Not at all actually. Those hair products only work when u still have hair, male pattern baldness is permanent* hair follicles don't generate back.
You use the stuff to prevent becoming bald. The only way to get bald spots back is a hair transplant.
I would have assumed most of his audience is older, this isn't exactly kid content. I'm already bald though so it's a lost cause for me.
I doubt that most of us are under 20. I’m 38.
There's a method of making bellows that doesn't utilize leather and is essentially just a piston. I bring this up because you said leather is a requirement when it's more of a strong suggestion.
You have a hollow cylinder with a hole at the bottom for air. You put a disc with a long handle inside it with a trapdoor on the inside so when you're pushing it pushes air through the tube and when pulling it pulls air from the top of the cylinder instead.
That's basically it.
Dude. Hats off for staying oldshool “primitive ! Glad I found you guys. Enjoyed it
Oh my gosh I’m a big Pokémon fan that diglet meme was amazing
I admit, the diglett got a chuckle out of me.
14:32, umm this is a family channel..
In the next episode he figures out the hard way why you shouldn't let a newly formed bloom cool down before you hammer it down.
Why?
@@boid9761 Reheating it to forging temperatures takes a lot of time and fuel, also each of the individual iron nuggets in the bloom becomes coated in an oxidation layer which will make forging them together extra hard. Most of this can be avoided by forging the bloom as soon as it comes out of the bloomery furnace.
@@stamasd8500 So basically, it took a long ass time to make a reasonably pure iron ingot this way?
@@boid9761 Not to mention I didn't see them poke a hole for slag to leak out so there is probably a ton of slag in that steel and from what I've learned slag is insulating making it that much harder to heat up later plus the fact that bloomery steel tends to be impure to begin with now with all that slag ? That thing is gonna be a B**** to forge weld later. Also there is almost no way to get pure iron from that method steel was definitely found first so pure iron will come later.
Great job! I love your humble curiosity and I admire your willingness to put in a lotta work with a smile to make things basic and authentic.
I had no idea about the 'Great Oxidisation Event' ! Really like this btw. Thanks!
Yay! Really glad to see the transition to iron age. Bronze age was getting a bit tiresome. Im very excited to see what you can make!
Using a magnet at that "beach" was so wild omg
You actually jumped from making "iron" to making "steel", with the use of charcoal.
It's funny, My brother and Myself growing partly up in the countryside. Started trying to make spears, stone arrowheads, hatchets, and bows. We experimented with techniques, even using tree sap, and hardening it in fire and cooling it suddenly. We discovered soaking wood branches in cold creeks for a week made it very pliable. And we would use it to secure things. And when it dried, it would stay in the shape needed. And we found pounding it, we could make a type of cloth, paper like material. And thought this could be made into clothing if we were inclined to make a bunch. Even baskets. Digging deep into the side of the creek ravine, and down into the water we discovered a very passable clay. And made by hand some cup like bowls. We let them dry and actually believe we could have fired them and made them serviceable. Around that time I started using a magnet. It was on a Keychain. And I noticed when I picked it up it was covered in iron fillings. And I started collecting a bunch. I wondered it people discovered a lodestone and had a similar experience. We intended to see if we could smelt them into a bloom. While firing the clay cup like bowls. But alas, that Summer ended and we never went back. However, 10 years later some locals had their reputations tarnished claiming they found an archeological site. My brother and Myself went: "Oops!" LOL!
With respect your ol lady is bad to the bone. Its really nice to see a couple doing something this cool that takes alot of dedication and work. Respect. Great video
When working with clay for large projects, I suggest taking a look at the channel primitive technology. You have to let it almost fully dry before going onto the next layer. the way you were doing it, it was too wet, and therefor would collapse onto itself.. The only time you can really ignore that is if you build it around a frame. Then, when it's completed around it, burn away the frame. This will bake it as well as remove the frame at the same time. just clean out by hand and bam! you're good
he was too quick to finish and go home like a bitch, he did not even show the result yield.
that was the cutest diglet noise ive ever heard
Achievement unlocked: Acquire Hardware
your doing everything that took us a million years in a couple of years
14:35 Am I the only one who died laughing? Adolescent humor at it's best.
Aww heck yeah I've been waiting for this for a long time, since watching Good and Basic's attempts.
One thing you didn't mention: do those pot bellows have valves in them? If they don't, then I imagine if you're alternating them, one will be sucking in the air the other just blew out.
The leather is folded over itself in a way where you can seal it on the downstroke and let air on the upstroke
1:36 to skip ad
Ah I love Lauren already
:-) thank you!!
Im going to marry that woman
This channel is incredible! Shout out to my fellow Minnesotan!
This video just saved me a lot of time and trouble. I'm a bladesmith and I'd like to make a quality knife from materials sourced from my own land. I have access to a creek bed with unlimited blue clay. I know I can do it. I may even try the ancient Japanese method after collecting black sand from the creek. Theres a lot of it and it sticks to magents really good. I've saved about 10 lb over the years. I was lost on where to begin lol. This helps. Thank you.
Awwww yeah. This stuff is pure. I found a fix for dr stone addiction.
The end makes me think about how rich society is today. Walk through your house and see how many metal things you can find. Even people in the medevial often had very few metal possessions unless they were wealthy (or maybe specialized like a blacksmith)
Go even further and see how difficult it is to learn to just make a proper nail by hand and see why only the wealthy could afford more than just the bare necessary items to be made of metal. Medieval carpentry typically used wooden pegs instead of nails since they were so costly and only used them when absolutely necessary
@@josiahtheblacksmith467 Yeah, that's why in the right places during medieval times, there was some really masterful carpentry. They needed stuff to be quality and last, but it would take more time to make some proper metals than it is to learn a complex wood joint.
@@Masa6x lots of different specialties need to come together to make seemingly simple things possible. Stone cutters, potters, carpenters, Smiths, all very important and complicated in their way especially at the upper levels of their respective art. That being said modern people rarely understand even basic metallurgy unless they are in the metal industry. Most modern people don't understand the uses of different types of wood or stone either, so in some ways our ancestors were more knowledgeable in their field than we are even though we have the benefit of modern education and resources.
When are you going to make Plague doctor masks and hazmat suits?
Probably never, it was very clearly stated when he started this project that safety equipment would not be a part of it, because well you know, safety.
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iokc
Plague dr masks were invented in the 1600s, and modern hazmat suits were invented for WW1. HTME is up to about 600 BCE now, so still quite a lot of history to cover until then
Wait does anyone know when activated charcoal was discovered and used to absorb toxins in the human body?
That, “oh crap” had me laughing so hard😂 10:05
I grew up in Duluth, live Northeast now. In the summer of 1965, between 7th & 8th grades, I took a history class at the St. Louis County museum which was on East Superior St. at the time. We took some class trips, one of which was to the Tower-Soudan Mine the day before it opened and became a state park. Our guide told us we couldn't tell anyone because the governor of the state had the "official" opening ceremony the next day.
BRUH I'm waiting for the titanium
*IT'S RUTILE TIME*
That's definitely a piece of Iron 😎👍💯
Iron
Concrete
Magnets
Chemistry
Electricity
Lights
Silicon
Circuitry
Phones
Liquid Crystal Display
Calculators and computers
is this the list that we do not deserve, but that we needed?
@@ricardobautista-garcia8492 yea? I tried to do a thought experiment project similar to this. Inspired by the Dr. Stone manga. It was fun!
@@melodyhynes9904 I see.
Diamond
Netherite
Jk lol
Pog
Interesting. In Southeast Texas we have "redbeds" of iron ore at the surface from Early Permian-age. They were mined in late 1800's till 1920'ish. Very easy to dig. There are huge piles of it. Often used for rural roads. May have to try to do some smelting.
Greatly appreciate the sponsor timer in upper right corner. Not so i can skip it, but so i realize i don't have to. This should be mandatory.
15:12 I guess you could that that they were “pumping iron”
me: *(laughs at own joke)*
Made me smile.
wow this is exactly what I have thought for years. Nice to somebody do the whole series of causality of how iron is made without the iron tools! :)
Let's see if I remember this correctly:
C + O2 -> CO2
CO2 + C -> 2 CO
3 CO + Fe2O3 -> 2 Fe (l) + 3 CO2 (g)
=> The burning of the Carbon (coal) does not simply liquify the metal ore, but it also produces carbon monoxide, which acts as the reducing agent necessary to reduced the Iron-oxide into elemental Iron.
This is such a cool video series/channel idea.
I am sure that I could find the answers to the whole 'tech tree' by googling each of them individually, but just like in video games, what fun is it to always play with everything unlocked that you did not do yourself? This is almost like Runescape IRL lol. You put a certain amount of hours in, and gather enough materials... then you can once you have enough XP you level up to unlock more efficient and stronger materials. Super cool. Well, you got a new sub.
At the tracks, I would have used magnets to pick up the iron pellets. Would've been quicker, I think.
In fairness I don't think he's discovered lodestones yet
That was our original plan, but taconite isn't actually as magnetic in its final form. The last step in their production is roasting them to turn the magnetite to hematite, which isn't magnetic
Came for the iron; stayed for the jokes.
Tattoo Tammy is eye candy
Whoever smelt it, dealt it.
K Bank booooooooo...
I haven't seen anything but the intro. But I know I need to subscribe to this channel. I find this kind of thing fascinating.
This channel is almost like the anime Dr. Stone So dope 💪🏾
fun fact: back in the 800's during the slavic immigration into germany they had rocks as their only iron source
You should collab with Alec Steele for some smithing
Lol okay so hear me out... I know what we made looks like something else so let’s all just avoid that conversation. 𝒯𝒽𝒶𝓃𝓀 𝓎ℴ𝓊 ♥︎
Its inevitable. This is the internet after all.
Now that you mention it...
All I've gotta say is things really start to heat up once you start _workin the bellows_ 😏
@@meltedyakkystick3891 reminds me of Kari Byron from Mythbusters
@@meltedyakkystick3891 Oooh, that's hot.
Very cool. We survived the bronze, copper and now we know hundreds of ways to smelting. Good job on video.
My inner twelve year old came out when they added the two pot bellows lol.