Aaaaand I put the wrong newsletter link in the video.🤦 If you like this video, you'll love this newsletter: workingwoodenplanes.com No sales, no AI slop. Just good stories about planes.
A really interesting video, Abraham. I really enjoyed watching such a well researched video. Just one point, and someone may already have pointed this out. You mentioned some research from the 1980’s by Kenneth “Barclaw?” I suspect that the gentleman’s name is Baraclough which is a typical name around Sheffield. It’s actually pronounced “Barracluff”. We Brits have some pretty strange family names and the pronunciation isn’t always obvious. Try to attempt pronouncing Featherstonehaugh. I’ll lay money you won’t get it! 😂 It’s pronounced “Fanshaw” 😂
yeah this was a very good balanced video ,very informative without getting boring , this was the first video of yours i have ever seen and it will not be the last
I was just at the Hawley Collection in Sheffield last week! I really enjoyed your video, and am looking forward to the newsletter. One subject of particular interest to me is the story of Henry Sorby, who inherited a lot of money when his father died (also Henry, the H in I&H Sorby tools from 1829-1844) and used it to do microscopic analysis of steel, among other things. There's a microscopy lab dedicated to him at the University of Sheffield, and--as I understand it--Bessemer et al were very dependent on Sorby's analyses for the development of mild steel.
A very interesting - and decently researched video, completely new to this channel. Im a Sheffield chap, not living there any more but I grew up there, was born in chesterfield(next door) have family there and I went to uni there. I can assure you that despite the massive layoffs in the 70's through 90's the production of Sheffield crucible steel is more than what it was historically - so it absolutely has been HEAVILY automated. Sheffield steel is now owned by a dutch/norweigan company which also owns the mines in northern Europe as well as the mines in Sheffield and its surrounding areas. In addition to still producing more crucible steel than it ever has, Sheffield also produces a hell of a lot of electric furnace steel and iron along with various alloys. Sheffield and its surrounding towns also contain multiple competing companies and have since the 2n'd world war, these days the universtiy owns most of the land these companies operate on and they supply the high tech industry that the city is known for today - making steel/iron/alloys for satellites, aerospace, military, medical etc etc. My father was one of the most renowned metallurgists in the nation, frankly in the world, worked in both Steel industry and Iron Industry, I worked in the aforementioned high tech industries supplied by the steel industry. The phrase by the locals is "Shit in, Shit out" and that phrase is still used today, something my dad applied to more than just steel production - often applied to business and politics. If you have any questions Im happy to answer them.
I used to go to Sheffield with my father in the early 1980's, he would carry steel billets made in Brymbo Steelworks (Near Wrexham in North Wales) to a Massive forge in the industrial area. These billets were forged into crankshafts for petrol/ diesel engines for the car industry. I used to be overawed by these massive machines stamping up and down shaping out the parts. Thanks for the video, I really enjoyed it, and I think others may well have enjoyed also.
Totally. I normally get bored with long format videos where someone is just staring at the camera talking, but he did a great job of staying interesting and never rambling.
yeah this was a very good balanced video ,very informative without getting boring , this was the first video of yours i have ever seen it will neither be the last
At school in the 1960s I was taught a sligtly different version. For a long time people knew that the amount of carbon in the steel was important but because they couldnt easily analyse the carbon content they never knew how much to add to get the end result required. The Bessemer process worked by first removing ALL of the carbon (by reacting it with oxygen in the air) so that the required amount of carbon to be added back could be easily calculated .
That’s what I remember learning, but not from school… If you went through an education I did you’d be MAD. The world that attended and ran the worlds fair? Gone. The wonderment of learning and progress is dead. The people need the worlds fair.
I knew if this as an iron purification method, and one of the things involved in that. I didn't learn about it by name. That's just on a classroom / casual research level. I haven't had the pleasure of working with my hands.
Great stuff! I’ve been a professional craftsman for more than 40 years, a big fan of history, and still learning all the time. My youngest daughter has just finished up her third year studying materials engineering - I love sending her stuff like this, as she enjoys learning the history of the processes that have brought us the great tools we use today, with an eye on what the materials used to make those tools are evolving into for the future. Your presentation style and content are both informative and engaging, thank you for your effort, and all the best in your work!
Thank you for sharing! I have about twenty one years as a cnc machinist. Your lesson in the history of great metals has always fascinated me. Also wood crafting is always more fun when with each cut I can appreciate the passed down passion and wisdom in my tools edge. This content is greatly appreciated!
What was the composition of "Cast Steel" in the 18 hundreds? It seems that early Cast Steel was only simple high carbon steel. In which case low carbon Bessemer steel could certainly be made the equivalent of "cast steel" by bumping up the carbon content. I am confused by your use of "high quality" rather than the actual assay. Cheers.
@@bubbajones5905 Yes, some Swedish ore naturally contained manganese. This gave edged weapons and tools a nice bite. Swedish steel also was low in phosphor and sulfur.
Thank you for a very good video and a nice overview of the processes. I am a metallurgical engineer working in the forging industry for the last 20 years and have been a blacksmith/bladesmith for 25+ years. Within the last few years I have spent a great deal of time researching this very topic and found the same information and references you did, though I have not seen Mr. Barracluagh's thesis, which I am looking forward to reading. There are a few details that might be worth clarifying: The Bessemer process was normally used to make low carbon steels because there was not much control over the process. Initially it was monitored by eye without any special instruments so if was very hard to stop the oxygen blow at just he right time to hit a desired carbon content. Converting 10 tons of pig iron into low carbon steel took about 10 minutes. The Siemens method was much better for fine tuning compositions because it took several hours or more and there was plenty of time to sample the liquid metal and make adjustments before pouring the steel into a mold. The method of melting blister steel was replaced much later by melting iron directly with a carbon source, but this practice was not adopted in until quite late. Harry Brearly, who was another instrumental Sheffeild steel man comments on this in one of his autobigraphies (he wrote 2) and notes that the blister steel would melt at a lower temperature than pure iron with a seperate carbon source like charcoal. This made it easier to achieve the desired melting temperature than to use the method that skips the blister steel. One final point of interest come from the book "The Arms of Krupp". The English really had a lock on the production of cast steel until the 1830s. At this time, Napolean sponsored a prize of 4000 Francs to whoever could replicate the English process. A member of the Krupp family was successful in doing that in the mid to late 1830s, but up until that time, pretty much all the cast steel in Europe and the US came from England.
Charts Aren't boring! I really appreciate the effort you put in to this video, all the research and clearly laying out the time line of cast steel. Thank you so much!
Great presentation - my knowledge of cast steel was rudimentary (like many was under the impression its production phased out in the mid-1800s) and this helped a lot to understand the process and history. Would really like to see more presentations like this
You pushed all the right buttons in this video: Old tools, history, woodworking, metalworking, and books. Fascinating history lesson about steel and tools. This is the first video I have seen from your channel and I was blown away. Great job!
I knew most of this already because I was lucky enough to know people in aerospace and toolmaking who were huge history nerds. Good concise coverage here. What caught my attention was the old photo at 8:27 showing cast steel propellers for ships. On the left, is that one of those “new” toroidal-blade props?
Hmm - did a detailed look into the references you provided - you certainly did a lot of research to produce this video, much appreciated - you have me hooked now
Thank you very much!! I took several decades to study how naval face-hardened side armor of cruisers and battleships was made from the middle-1890s (Krupp Cemented nickel-chromium armor steel in several varieties made by manufacturers in several nations (US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan). I had to develop several parameters that isolated different steel properties from one-another to decide which were contributing to which final result, good or bad. The last WWII armor of this type used a standard 1.00 for their general steel "quality" prior to the processing of the steel into the final heavy armor plates, which were sorted by me into various levels of how good the armor was under various conditions. I used US nickel-chromium average armor-class steels made by the US firms of Midvale, Bethlehem, and Carnegie-Illinois in WWII for that part of the steel and then sorted out what was done to these steels (used for tank armor and the other softer armor class naval steels, too). Older WWI-era steels of this type were somewhat inferior, as can be imagined, due to the lower metallurgical expertise back then, as I found (with a couple of exceptions). However, as I said, I carefully sorted out each important parameter as to its effects on the final tested product and, for example, found some WWII Japanese experimental face-hardened armor (never used on a ship) to have the WWI-era steel quality but still ended up the best plates ever tested by the US or Britain after WWII (they never figured out why, to my knowledge!). The baseline steel quality of British face-hardened side armor used in its new WWII largest warships only came to 0.93, significantly lower than the US average 1.00 for steel quality, but the British armor turned out somewhat better than the US armor of this kind due to variations in the things like hard face thickness that the British did a better job exploiting. Thus, steel "quality" is more than just the internal metallurgy of the metal itself, but how it is processed to make the final product, which can make somewhat inferior steel give superior results, anyway. My phone number is 1-805-649-4952, if you are interested in my take on this huge topic.
@@-IE_it_yourself I started this hobby to make the armor rules in a miniature ship naval wargame based on an expanded version of the 1930s Fletcher Pratt Naval War Game designed by Ivan Travnicek as THE GAME OF ADMIRALS in the early 1970s. Good miniature ship game but had poor information on armor penetration rules. I had a GIGANTIC amount of luck on this and was able to more-or-less solve most of it, the face-hardened armor part all by myself since I found it had never been done by anybody in all of those huge navies, with they only knowing pieces of the puzzle.
As an interesting side note about Japanese steel from WW2, their Arisaka bolt action rifle was mocked by everyone as being junk made from inferior steel. In the 1950's an American gunsmith by the name of P. O. Ackley ran a series of tests on many military bolt action rifles to see which ones could withstand the most pressure before failing. Most actions would ultimately fail in various ways due to severe overloaded cartridges. However, the Arisaka action was the only one that remained intact and was returned to service by simply changing the barrel. No matter the overload the barrels would fail before the action could be destroyed, Ackley even used special high strength barrels but the Arisaka action did not fail, it was the strongest bolt action that Ackley ever tested.
I’m an electrical engineer with no knowledge of steel or it’s history. You told this tale as if you were there, with nuance often missing from history texts. Fascinating insights into how human nature often bends technological innovations. Thanks for your excellent contribution .
It's an interesting perspective. As an Australian tool collector (Mainly made in England), this has been an obvious joy to watch. I have a MASSIVE antique hand cut rasp, over 2' in length, and a simlilar sized engineers screwdriver. I was walking towards the gate of the show where I bought them at, and a friend I know who was at the gate from a distance (Who also knew I was into medieval reinactments) thought I was dual wielding two short swords :) He freaked out until he came closer and realised I wasn't :p
I've never seen you before. I came here for the history lesson. You did a good job. Not to long. Well paced. Do more. Hopefully you will get rewarded by the YT algorithms.
With a lifelong interest in history, and some interest in metallurgy I was pleased to stumble onto your channel. Your storytelling skill make this subject very interesting to many. I agree the chart was informative. Ill' be checking out your playlist. thx
just stumbled across this. rekindled an interest in my pittsburgh family history. my great-great-granddad (robert sleeth) came over from ireland and worked in the steel industry. we were always told that he and his partner, siemens, were pivotal in developing the steel industry in iron city. our family certainly provided enough hot air...
I have an old Used Crucible in my garden. I found an old slag dump site down by the river. The steel company dumped the slag and also threw away old crucibles. I worked as a Tool and Die machinist for 20 years. I find the history of metals interesting.
This was the first time I’ve seen one of your videos in my algorithm. I’m encouraged to watch some restoration videos now. Thanks for being so insightful.
Glad to see a new video on your channel. I've watched all your previous videos and have enjoyed them all. I've been on the hunt for decent wooden planes but they are either way too expensive or not worth having, in my area. I'm sure something will turn up sooner or later. Congratulations on the new set. Looks like a different location too. All the best 👍😎🤠🇺🇸
AWESOME HISTORY! 30+ year woodworker now just getting into hand tool wood working. I've have collected several early Stanley planes, 2 late 19th and a dozen or so from early 20th. My favorite is a 1899 Type 8 hand plane,: a light strop on the blade w/ compound and I'm back making curly shaves.
What Rex Krueger says. Just came across this as I am just getting into making a Viking tent using hand tools for the first time. I decided to jump into the rabbit hole and I'm glad I did. This was both entertaining and educational. More please!
that's my main reason why i'm on youtube! please more of it and don't worry about the length- it's all really worth knowing points and now I have the opportunity to brush down a few people I know
It was my understanding that the Bessemer process just blew air into liquid iron to melt out all the carbon and then just the right amount of carbon was added back in to make a steel with the correct percentage of carbon in it to be considered steel where befor the only way to actually make steel was hammering the carbon out of iron after it cooled like a blacksmith would do or just be lucky and the percentage of carbon just turned out to have the right percentage after you melted it. Im willing to bet that most of those old cast "steels" are closer to being iron than to being steel if they are steel at all when considering how much carbon is likely in them
This was amazing! Please do more. Subbed! If I'm not mistaken, the primary issue with the cast steel made from Bessemer's steel (that had been carburized) turned out actually to be embrittlement from phosphorus. The reason the Swedish steel performed so really due to the lack of impurities in the ore.
I was the NDT inspector for one of the last steel, hand-fed, rolling mills in the world back in the 1970s. Perhaps, you could do an episode on rolled (and drawn) iron & steel?
First video I've seen of yours sir. Very interesting topic. The industrialization of the steel industry has had its ups and downs. Thank you for the insight. New sub. 👍🤝
That was, without doubt, one of the best videos on UA-cam. I come from one of the steel centres of the world, Middlesbrough in Yorkshire, home of Dorman & Long and worked there many years.
UA-cam just served this up to me, and I loved it! You're gonna get some subs from this one! Restoration is one thing, understanding the thing you're restoring is something else (and that's what makes it interesting!)
Great video and very interesting. My maternal grandfather worked in the steel industry for many years making pig iron in South Wales. Years later I was a field engineer responsible for the ongoing maintenance of many of the Yorkshire steel companies' computer control systems including the bar mill at Thrybergh near Sheffield. That plant was using a process called concast (continuous casting). Steel was cast in a continuous flow from the furnace through a massive, water cooled "casting" tube that needed thousands of gallons of water a minute to ensure that by the time the steel bar exited the "casting pipe" it had cooled sufficiently to be able to be run out onto the cooling grid. The bar had to be robotically cut in a very short time as it reached the end of each loading rail. The multiple acetylene torches took sub second time (they had too) to cut the bar on the fly and liquid steel could then be seen running out of the "hollow" bar. Fascinating and mesmerising to watch but a realtime programming nightmare. Also the only time preventive maintenance could be done was during furnace reloads after all the steel had "flowed" out to form hot bar with a liquid centre AFAIK this process could be used to produce any kind of "cast" steel bar from mild steel to special steels but I have no idea of the detail on that.
I've never heard of your channel, but it came up on my feed. You told a fascinating historical tale very well and I loved it. Incidentally, charts are NOT boring if used well. Keep up the good work. 👍
Amazing video! I was making a mauser 98 in the backyeard,mostly by forging, milling,turning,etc..till there was some pieces which were definitely cast steel.I was amazed to find out about how perfect and high quality work they were able to do.They were real magicians .
What an outstanding video! It’s truly brilliant, Abraham. I would LOVE to see more vids like this. Thank you very, very much for the time and effort you put into your research to make these presentations possible. Bravo!
Absolutely wonderful video. Videos on historical moments and the evolution of woodworking tools and practices are probably too few and far between; I loved your video on the Ohio Tool Company as well. This was a wonderful condensation of, what appears to be, a good amount of research. It reminds me of a lower division lecture. Kuddos. I look forward to more.
I found your video by doing a random search, and found you talk to be very interesting and quite informative. The reason I was looking for an article like this, was that someone, in a recent conversation with me, had made a derogatory comment about cast steel, and although I knew what he was saying wasn't true, I couldn't explain to him exactly why he was wrong. This video has explained the history well enough, that wit this, and some other information, I was able to go back and amplify my arguments well enough to "educate" him on the benefits of cast steel. Stop apologizing for doing a good job..... :-)
Living as I do about 20 miles North of Sheffield, and an engineer, I really liked you insight into the steel industry. Thank you Sadly now more famous for its supply mall than its steel industry, but then again the air is a lot lot cleaner
Great video. Very watchable. We all learn and from the comments there may be a couple of minor things for you. No matter. Suggest (in the steel story) you look at the history of Swedish steel based in Gallavare (pronounced yallivare). I visited the town (in the Arctic circle) and the museum. They had a mining pan about 450mm wide and lifted from the sides (no long handle) The sign invited people to lift it. It was full of unprocessed iron ore. I tried and instantly thought it was bolted to the floor. With a little more oomph I managed to move it a little. The ore had a very high iron content so was bloody heavy! It was so valuable the first ore was taken out by dog sled! Then the British build a railway and then a port in Narvic, Norway, to ship it out (ice free) to Sheffield. The full history is fascinating. Must look at your videos on how to use your planes. Many thanks.
I haven't watched any of your content before, I feel like this was recommended to me at random. It was amazing, great video! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and research, it was super interesting! Packed with information yet concise, no filler bullshit. Your passion for the subject really came through as well. I really enjoyed watching this and learning a bit about steel from it!
Definitely do more videos like this, not just because the algorithm seems to like it; I've been interested in the history of metalworking and how it turned from an art to a science, and this kind of content is always nice to see. It's good to learn something new on the topic, and your exposé was great!
This was a great watch; FWIW, you are really good at this! I'm a metallurgical newbie and this really helped. The way the history, the processing technology, the economics, the big names, and the products intertwine is fascinating. I'm still not clear on the difference between "tool steel" and "cast steel for tools" however! Oh, and by way of gentle advice, I grew up between Manchester & Sheffield in the UK and Mr Barraclough's name is pronounced "Barracluf"......I know, it's weird, and you're of course free to pronounce it however you like but I thought you'd like to know!
Great video, but do you have any more info on the image at 8:26? I believe those are 1890 Myers toroidal propellers which I was unable to find a picture of, got any source info so I can try to add it to the wiki page?
The photo is from a promotional book that Firth and Sons put together in the late 1890s. Unfortunatly, there's no info about the propellers, not even a date when it was taken archive.org/details/thosfirthsonslim00firtrich/page/78/mode/2up
Thanks to a personal interest in the history of technologies, I had known __some__ pieces of this (the developments of blister steel, crucible steel, the Bessemer process, and the open hearth process), but you filled in a lot of gaps in my understanding. It hadn't quite occurred to me until you pointed it out that the Bessemer/open hearth processes and the cast crucible process actually complemented each other, filling the niches their counterpart left empty. I'd also gotten an inkling of Bessemer's ... personality ... previously, but I hadn't realized he was quite that cutthroat! Thank you for this fascinating video!
Well done! Here in UK Bessemer was a hero when I was at school in the 50s and 60s (Britain did everything best, so we were told), so it was fascinating to see it from a different perspective. I thought your presentation style was excellent, and having spent my career teaching and researching in University, and being on BBC TV programmes, I understand the special skill you have. Did you use a teleprompter, or was this from memory? However, I am impressed.
It is also a fact that Herr Krupp played a personal part in investigating Bessemer steel for his own process. The matter was to some extent made available because of the properties of the coal used in the process.
You cannot use coal to make steel. The sulfur in coal contaminates the steel. You can turn coal into coke and make steel though. But that took a surprisingly long time to discover.
@@1pcfred I don’t disagree with your science. I was making the point in short form that the coal of Britain and that of the Ruhr differ and that is in the sulphur content. It was not until the coking process was eventually undertaken as you describe that Krupp began to further his industrial career which until then had been promoting the manufacture of cutlery by form of rolling presses if my memory of his history is correct.
Interesting video. You mentioned Siemens open hearth furnace, but seemed to have eluded that it just made "mild steel" of similar quality to the Bessemer process. The open hearth process made higher quality steel, and many different grades of steel well beyond what the Bessemer converter could make. The one advantage the Bessemer converter had was speed versus the open hearth process which took a very long time to refine each heat (probably 8 to 12 hours or so). The electric furnace was indeed used to make smaller tonnages of specialty alloys, and tool steels. The Bessemer converters were kept around to make steels for simpler products such as steel pipe, but eventually were phased out entirely.
Don't know when they were phased out but I was a 19 year old at RTB Llanwern in its' construction phase, about 1961/62, and they used bessemer type converters using oxygen as did its' twin plant at Ravenscraig. In 1962/63 I was at Consett Iron Works adding waste heat boilers to their bessemer type converters. The 'phasing out' must have been part of the de-industrialisation of UK starting circa '80's. Both Llanwern and Ravenscraig were doomed to failure because MacMillan (PM at the time) insisted that there be two plants, instead of the one large one envisaged, for political reasons; neither plant was large enough to compete with european steel makers.
Please do keep making videos like this, maybe make a few videos on the history of steel, how iron became steel. What is added to make what alloys. And when. Also who did it and where they did it. You have the perfect voice for telling history! Its the right pace , tone and easy to listen to. Some people have a voice that is difficult to follow, as in anoying. Some people talk so slow you are like and, and what hqppened next .. i do hope xou made more historical videos , im going to check out your channel.
Very interesting video! Especially the account of Bessemer- I worked in Bessemer,AL for several yrs, and I’m sure it was named after him. You described a narcissist and they have been around for a hot minute! Thanks for sharing.
Well I wasn’t expecting to be watching a video on the steel made in Sheffield, the city I was born and raised in and still live there. My father was in the steel industry all his life. Great the hear so much about what went on here.
I am a welder, blacksmith, and machinist. Metallurgy has been part of my life since I worked with my Grandfather in the 1950s. Good history here! Thanks!
I have a casual interest in steel and metallurgy. This video was outstanding. Didn't get into the weeds. I think you did a great job for the Every Man viewer.
Liked and shared. My little river town lived and died with the steel industry. A lot of us developed an interest due to this regionality of the metal, it's economic potential, and the change in the American Way.
Excellent video & content. Appreciate the deep dive into the finer aspects of things that we just take for granted that make things work like we expect them to. I only discovered your channel and Substack a few months back, and enjoy the content and education you give. Thanks
Great presentation! Really liked the explanations of the various steels, manufacture, as well as the history. Just having a too in your hand and using it for me is not enough, the question of who, how and why give the tool more value.
Now I have a question. Would it have been possible to take the Bessimer mild steel and introduce more carbon while forging it and make a good hard steel? My understanding of mild steel is that it is just a low carbon steel. So it just seems like if you put it in a furnace heated it up and started adding some carbon and banging on it and then temper and harden it, then it seems like that would give you some good hard steel. Did the Bessemer steel have a lot of impurities, and couldn't those impurities be worked out with a forge?
Yes, my thoughts exactly. In the video, he highlights a clip of Bessemer's autobiography that mentions "carburization," so perhaps the man was really on to something?
Very interested video. I don't know much about the steel industry so this was very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to make the video and bringing us this infomation
It is indeed possible to produce Bessemer steel with high carbon content like the one of crucible steel,Bessemer steel is not necessarily mild steel.The molten pig iron(which is cast iron with a very high carbon content,which can be produced by carboreduction of various ores,including the high purity magnetite from Sweden) is totally decarburized by the jet of air,then high manganese cast iron is added in order to form the high melting point MnS on the grains borders which prevents hot shortness.The right amount of carbon can be introduced afterwards. There were Bessemer converters producing steel for rails a century after the introduction of the patent m.ua-cam.com/video/_SusLrBIck8/v-deo.html. I can't understand where the lie is 😅.Even sir Joseph Whitworth said that ores being equal ,the Bessemer steel/homogeneus metal can be made of high quality.
Aaaaand I put the wrong newsletter link in the video.🤦 If you like this video, you'll love this newsletter: workingwoodenplanes.com No sales, no AI slop. Just good stories about planes.
A really interesting video, Abraham. I really enjoyed watching such a well researched video. Just one point, and someone may already have pointed this out. You mentioned some research from the 1980’s by Kenneth “Barclaw?” I suspect that the gentleman’s name is Baraclough which is a typical name around Sheffield. It’s actually pronounced “Barracluff”. We Brits have some pretty strange family names and the pronunciation isn’t always obvious. Try to attempt pronouncing Featherstonehaugh. I’ll lay money you won’t get it! 😂
It’s pronounced “Fanshaw” 😂
yeah this was a very good balanced video ,very informative without getting boring ,
this was the first video of yours i have ever seen and it will not be the last
I was just at the Hawley Collection in Sheffield last week! I really enjoyed your video, and am looking forward to the newsletter. One subject of particular interest to me is the story of Henry Sorby, who inherited a lot of money when his father died (also Henry, the H in I&H Sorby tools from 1829-1844) and used it to do microscopic analysis of steel, among other things. There's a microscopy lab dedicated to him at the University of Sheffield, and--as I understand it--Bessemer et al were very dependent on Sorby's analyses for the development of mild steel.
I jump all over the place with vids. THIS was GREAT. I didn't wander at all. Def worth a second watch to pick up what I missed the first go.
A very interesting - and decently researched video, completely new to this channel.
Im a Sheffield chap, not living there any more but I grew up there, was born in chesterfield(next door) have family there and I went to uni there. I can assure you that despite the massive layoffs in the 70's through 90's the production of Sheffield crucible steel is more than what it was historically - so it absolutely has been HEAVILY automated. Sheffield steel is now owned by a dutch/norweigan company which also owns the mines in northern Europe as well as the mines in Sheffield and its surrounding areas.
In addition to still producing more crucible steel than it ever has, Sheffield also produces a hell of a lot of electric furnace steel and iron along with various alloys.
Sheffield and its surrounding towns also contain multiple competing companies and have since the 2n'd world war, these days the universtiy owns most of the land these companies operate on and they supply the high tech industry that the city is known for today - making steel/iron/alloys for satellites, aerospace, military, medical etc etc.
My father was one of the most renowned metallurgists in the nation, frankly in the world, worked in both Steel industry and Iron Industry, I worked in the aforementioned high tech industries supplied by the steel industry.
The phrase by the locals is "Shit in, Shit out" and that phrase is still used today, something my dad applied to more than just steel production - often applied to business and politics.
If you have any questions Im happy to answer them.
I used to go to Sheffield with my father in the early 1980's, he would carry steel billets made in Brymbo Steelworks (Near Wrexham in North Wales) to a Massive forge in the industrial area. These billets were forged into crankshafts for petrol/ diesel engines for the car industry. I used to be overawed by these massive machines stamping up and down shaping out the parts. Thanks for the video, I really enjoyed it, and I think others may well have enjoyed also.
This video is AMAZING. I was absolutely captivated the whole way through and I learned a ton. Excellent work. More! More!
I second that motion!!! 🤠👍
Totally. I normally get bored with long format videos where someone is just staring at the camera talking, but he did a great job of staying interesting and never rambling.
I third this motion!
yeah this was a very good balanced video ,very informative without getting boring ,
this was the first video of yours i have ever seen it will neither be the last
Same here. This was wonderful to learn. Thank you.
At school in the 1960s I was taught a sligtly different version. For a long time people knew that the amount of carbon in the steel was important but because they couldnt easily analyse the carbon content they never knew how much to add to get the end result required. The Bessemer process worked by first removing ALL of the carbon (by reacting it with oxygen in the air) so that the required amount of carbon to be added back could be easily calculated .
That’s what I remember learning, but not from school…
If you went through an education I did you’d be MAD.
The world that attended and ran the worlds fair? Gone. The wonderment of learning and progress is dead.
The people need the worlds fair.
@lindboknifeandtool +1 On a World's Fair.
That's how I was taught about it in Engeering University. Bessemer removes all the carbon so that you can add back and have a known carbon content.
I knew if this as an iron purification method, and one of the things involved in that. I didn't learn about it by name.
That's just on a classroom / casual research level. I haven't had the pleasure of working with my hands.
Really like this. Lots of small details of these tools (like what they mean by "cast steel") go missing over the years without us nerds... keep it up!
Great stuff! I’ve been a professional craftsman for more than 40 years, a big fan of history, and still learning all the time. My youngest daughter has just finished up her third year studying materials engineering - I love sending her stuff like this, as she enjoys learning the history of the processes that have brought us the great tools we use today, with an eye on what the materials used to make those tools are evolving into for the future. Your presentation style and content are both informative and engaging, thank you for your effort, and all the best in your work!
Hey you’ve got a materials engineering daughter you say…. Hey George my name is Cole…😂
Send her some literature about reinforced carbon-carbon.
Thank you for sharing! I have about twenty one years as a cnc machinist. Your lesson in the history of great metals has always fascinated me. Also wood crafting is always more fun when with each cut I can appreciate the passed down passion and wisdom in my tools edge. This content is greatly appreciated!
What was the composition of "Cast Steel" in the 18 hundreds? It seems that early Cast Steel was only simple high carbon steel. In which case low carbon Bessemer steel could certainly be made the equivalent of "cast steel" by bumping up the carbon content. I am confused by your use of "high quality" rather than the actual assay. Cheers.
This is what I have always wondered. Did Swedish Iron naturaly contain an alloy like manganise? I haven't found a reference that gives it's chemistry.
@@bubbajones5905 Yes, some Swedish ore naturally contained manganese. This gave edged weapons and tools a nice bite. Swedish steel also was low in phosphor and sulfur.
Thank you for a very good video and a nice overview of the processes. I am a metallurgical engineer working in the forging industry for the last 20 years and have been a blacksmith/bladesmith for 25+ years. Within the last few years I have spent a great deal of time researching this very topic and found the same information and references you did, though I have not seen Mr. Barracluagh's thesis, which I am looking forward to reading. There are a few details that might be worth clarifying: The Bessemer process was normally used to make low carbon steels because there was not much control over the process. Initially it was monitored by eye without any special instruments so if was very hard to stop the oxygen blow at just he right time to hit a desired carbon content. Converting 10 tons of pig iron into low carbon steel took about 10 minutes. The Siemens method was much better for fine tuning compositions because it took several hours or more and there was plenty of time to sample the liquid metal and make adjustments before pouring the steel into a mold. The method of melting blister steel was replaced much later by melting iron directly with a carbon source, but this practice was not adopted in until quite late. Harry Brearly, who was another instrumental Sheffeild steel man comments on this in one of his autobigraphies (he wrote 2) and notes that the blister steel would melt at a lower temperature than pure iron with a seperate carbon source like charcoal. This made it easier to achieve the desired melting temperature than to use the method that skips the blister steel. One final point of interest come from the book "The Arms of Krupp". The English really had a lock on the production of cast steel until the 1830s. At this time, Napolean sponsored a prize of 4000 Francs to whoever could replicate the English process. A member of the Krupp family was successful in doing that in the mid to late 1830s, but up until that time, pretty much all the cast steel in Europe and the US came from England.
Interesting that you mention the book The Arms of Krupp. I bought one at a library for 5 dollars. Quite an interesting read.
Charts Aren't boring! I really appreciate the effort you put in to this video, all the research and clearly laying out the time line of cast steel. Thank you so much!
Chart is worth 1000s words!
This was awesome! Thank you for your research, this is something I might have never known about had you not released this.
Great presentation - my knowledge of cast steel was rudimentary (like many was under the impression its production phased out in the mid-1800s) and this helped a lot to understand the process and history. Would really like to see more presentations like this
I second that motion!!! 🤠👍
Not sure what I was expecting when I clicked on this video, but you had my interest.
Keep up the good work.
You pushed all the right buttons in this video: Old tools, history, woodworking, metalworking, and books. Fascinating history lesson about steel and tools. This is the first video I have seen from your channel and I was blown away. Great job!
You asked in the video if you should make more like this...........definitely YES! This was absolutely of great interest. Nice work!
Y E S !
As a Chemist- Educator and a Blacksmith I think this was very well done. More please!
I knew most of this already because I was lucky enough to know people in aerospace and toolmaking who were huge history nerds. Good concise coverage here.
What caught my attention was the old photo at 8:27 showing cast steel propellers for ships. On the left, is that one of those “new” toroidal-blade props?
I noticed that too, had to go back and check.
What is the history behind that picture? Where, when, who... The text on the two props. say "PATENTED". Can we find that patent?
Yes. i noticed that too. intriguing. whats new is old. (again)
The prop on the right, lying down is the same as the one on the left.
Fascinating storytelling, nicely laid out research. I enjoyed this as much or even more than the restoration videos. Thank you for experimenting!
Hmm - did a detailed look into the references you provided - you certainly did a lot of research to produce this video, much appreciated - you have me hooked now
Thank you very much!! I took several decades to study how naval face-hardened side armor of cruisers and battleships was made from the middle-1890s (Krupp Cemented nickel-chromium armor steel in several varieties made by manufacturers in several nations (US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan). I had to develop several parameters that isolated different steel properties from one-another to decide which were contributing to which final result, good or bad. The last WWII armor of this type used a standard 1.00 for their general steel "quality" prior to the processing of the steel into the final heavy armor plates, which were sorted by me into various levels of how good the armor was under various conditions. I used US nickel-chromium average armor-class steels made by the US firms of Midvale, Bethlehem, and Carnegie-Illinois in WWII for that part of the steel and then sorted out what was done to these steels (used for tank armor and the other softer armor class naval steels, too). Older WWI-era steels of this type were somewhat inferior, as can be imagined, due to the lower metallurgical expertise back then, as I found (with a couple of exceptions). However, as I said, I carefully sorted out each important parameter as to its effects on the final tested product and, for example, found some WWII Japanese experimental face-hardened armor (never used on a ship) to have the WWI-era steel quality but still ended up the best plates ever tested by the US or Britain after WWII (they never figured out why, to my knowledge!). The baseline steel quality of British face-hardened side armor used in its new WWII largest warships only came to 0.93, significantly lower than the US average 1.00 for steel quality, but the British armor turned out somewhat better than the US armor of this kind due to variations in the things like hard face thickness that the British did a better job exploiting. Thus, steel "quality" is more than just the internal metallurgy of the metal itself, but how it is processed to make the final product, which can make somewhat inferior steel give superior results, anyway.
My phone number is 1-805-649-4952, if you are interested in my take on this huge topic.
damn, i kinda feel like calling. nice write up! this guy face-hardens
@@-IE_it_yourself I started this hobby to make the armor rules in a miniature ship naval wargame based on an expanded version of the 1930s Fletcher Pratt Naval War Game designed by Ivan Travnicek as THE GAME OF ADMIRALS in the early 1970s. Good miniature ship game but had poor information on armor penetration rules. I had a GIGANTIC amount of luck on this and was able to more-or-less solve most of it, the face-hardened armor part all by myself since I found it had never been done by anybody in all of those huge navies, with they only knowing pieces of the puzzle.
As an interesting side note about Japanese steel from WW2, their Arisaka bolt action rifle was mocked by everyone as being junk made from inferior steel. In the 1950's an American gunsmith by the name of P. O. Ackley ran a series of tests on many military bolt action rifles to see which ones could withstand the most pressure before failing. Most actions would ultimately fail in various ways due to severe overloaded cartridges. However, the Arisaka action was the only one that remained intact and was returned to service by simply changing the barrel. No matter the overload the barrels would fail before the action could be destroyed, Ackley even used special high strength barrels but the Arisaka action did not fail, it was the strongest bolt action that Ackley ever tested.
Appreciate the enormous amount of work you put in to make this informative video!
I’m an electrical engineer with no knowledge of steel or it’s history. You told this tale as if you were there, with nuance often missing from history texts. Fascinating insights into how human nature often bends technological innovations. Thanks for your excellent contribution .
It's an interesting perspective. As an Australian tool collector (Mainly made in England), this has been an obvious joy to watch.
I have a MASSIVE antique hand cut rasp, over 2' in length, and a simlilar sized engineers screwdriver. I was walking towards the gate of the show where I bought them at, and a friend I know who was at the gate from a distance (Who also knew I was into medieval reinactments) thought I was dual wielding two short swords :) He freaked out until he came closer and realised I wasn't :p
I've never seen you before. I came here for the history lesson. You did a good job. Not to long. Well paced. Do more. Hopefully you will get rewarded by the YT algorithms.
With a lifelong interest in history, and some interest in metallurgy I was pleased to stumble onto your channel. Your storytelling skill make this subject very interesting to many. I agree the chart was informative. Ill' be checking out your playlist. thx
Superb synopsis of a historically important and interesting technology! More please!
just stumbled across this. rekindled an interest in my pittsburgh family history. my great-great-granddad (robert sleeth) came over from ireland and worked in the steel industry. we were always told that he and his partner, siemens, were pivotal in developing the steel industry in iron city. our family certainly provided enough hot air...
I have an old Used Crucible in my garden. I found an old slag dump site down by the river. The steel company dumped the slag and also threw away old crucibles. I worked as a Tool and Die machinist for 20 years. I find the history of metals interesting.
This was the first time I’ve seen one of your videos in my algorithm. I’m encouraged to watch some restoration videos now. Thanks for being so insightful.
Glad to see a new video on your channel. I've watched all your previous videos and have enjoyed them all. I've been on the hunt for decent wooden planes but they are either way too expensive or not worth having, in my area. I'm sure something will turn up sooner or later.
Congratulations on the new set. Looks like a different location too. All the best 👍😎🤠🇺🇸
New location, new workshop that I just finished building. Thanks for watching all my videos!
@@WoodenPlanes You're welcome, sir 🤠
AWESOME HISTORY! 30+ year woodworker now just getting into hand tool wood working. I've have collected several early Stanley planes, 2 late 19th and a dozen or so from early 20th. My favorite is a 1899 Type 8 hand plane,: a light strop on the blade w/ compound and I'm back making curly shaves.
What Rex Krueger says. Just came across this as I am just getting into making a Viking tent using hand tools for the first time. I decided to jump into the rabbit hole and I'm glad I did. This was both entertaining and educational. More please!
that's my main reason why i'm on youtube! please more of it and don't worry about the length- it's all really worth knowing points and now I have the opportunity to brush down a few people I know
Really interesting content here. Would love to continue hearing stories of plane making history.
It was my understanding that the Bessemer process just blew air into liquid iron to melt out all the carbon and then just the right amount of carbon was added back in to make a steel with the correct percentage of carbon in it to be considered steel where befor the only way to actually make steel was hammering the carbon out of iron after it cooled like a blacksmith would do or just be lucky and the percentage of carbon just turned out to have the right percentage after you melted it. Im willing to bet that most of those old cast "steels" are closer to being iron than to being steel if they are steel at all when considering how much carbon is likely in them
Absolutely wonderful! Exceptional content. Well researched, clear points, balanced argument. Well done. Love to see more like this!
This was amazing! Please do more. Subbed! If I'm not mistaken, the primary issue with the cast steel made from Bessemer's steel (that had been carburized) turned out actually to be embrittlement from phosphorus. The reason the Swedish steel performed so really due to the lack of impurities in the ore.
I was the NDT inspector for one of the last steel, hand-fed, rolling mills in the world back in the 1970s. Perhaps, you could do an episode on rolled (and drawn) iron & steel?
First video I've seen of yours sir. Very interesting topic. The industrialization of the steel industry has had its ups and downs. Thank you for the insight. New sub. 👍🤝
That was, without doubt, one of the best videos on UA-cam. I come from one of the steel centres of the world, Middlesbrough in Yorkshire, home of Dorman & Long and worked there many years.
Great video.i had no idea there was so much drama behind the development of mild steel.very educational
UA-cam just served this up to me, and I loved it! You're gonna get some subs from this one! Restoration is one thing, understanding the thing you're restoring is something else (and that's what makes it interesting!)
Great video and very interesting. My maternal grandfather worked in the steel industry for many years making pig iron in South Wales. Years later I was a field engineer responsible for the ongoing maintenance of many of the Yorkshire steel companies' computer control systems including the bar mill at Thrybergh near Sheffield. That plant was using a process called concast (continuous casting). Steel was cast in a continuous flow from the furnace through a massive, water cooled "casting" tube that needed thousands of gallons of water a minute to ensure that by the time the steel bar exited the "casting pipe" it had cooled sufficiently to be able to be run out onto the cooling grid.
The bar had to be robotically cut in a very short time as it reached the end of each loading rail. The multiple acetylene torches took sub second time (they had too) to cut the bar on the fly and liquid steel could then be seen running out of the "hollow" bar.
Fascinating and mesmerising to watch but a realtime programming nightmare. Also the only time preventive maintenance could be done was during furnace reloads after all the steel had "flowed" out to form hot bar with a liquid centre
AFAIK this process could be used to produce any kind of "cast" steel bar from mild steel to special steels but I have no idea of the detail on that.
I've never heard of your channel, but it came up on my feed. You told a fascinating historical tale very well and I loved it. Incidentally, charts are NOT boring if used well.
Keep up the good work. 👍
I enjoyed this video immensely. You have the necessary presence and delivery to go far, in my humble opinion. You earned a new subscriber.
Amazing video!
I was making a mauser 98 in the backyeard,mostly by forging, milling,turning,etc..till there was some pieces which were definitely cast steel.I was amazed to find out about how perfect and high quality work they were able to do.They were real magicians .
That was useful, incredibly informative, and well worth every second of my time I spent watching it. Thank you. I subbed!
What an outstanding video! It’s truly brilliant, Abraham. I would LOVE to see more vids like this. Thank you very, very much for the time and effort you put into your research to make these presentations possible. Bravo!
Absolutely wonderful video. Videos on historical moments and the evolution of woodworking tools and practices are probably too few and far between; I loved your video on the Ohio Tool Company as well. This was a wonderful condensation of, what appears to be, a good amount of research. It reminds me of a lower division lecture. Kuddos. I look forward to more.
I found your video by doing a random search, and found you talk to be very interesting and quite informative.
The reason I was looking for an article like this, was that someone, in a recent conversation with me, had made a derogatory comment about cast steel, and although I knew what he was saying wasn't true, I couldn't explain to him exactly why he was wrong. This video has explained the history well enough, that wit this, and some other information, I was able to go back and amplify my arguments well enough to "educate" him on the benefits of cast steel.
Stop apologizing for doing a good job..... :-)
Living as I do about 20 miles North of Sheffield, and an engineer, I really liked you insight into the steel industry. Thank you Sadly now more famous for its supply mall than its steel industry, but then again the air is a lot lot cleaner
Great video. Very watchable. We all learn and from the comments there may be a couple of minor things for you. No matter.
Suggest (in the steel story) you look at the history of Swedish steel based in Gallavare (pronounced yallivare). I visited the town (in the Arctic circle) and the museum. They had a mining pan about 450mm wide and lifted from the sides (no long handle) The sign invited people to lift it. It was full of unprocessed iron ore. I tried and instantly thought it was bolted to the floor. With a little more oomph I managed to move it a little. The ore had a very high iron content so was bloody heavy! It was so valuable the first ore was taken out by dog sled! Then the British build a railway and then a port in Narvic, Norway, to ship it out (ice free) to Sheffield. The full history is fascinating.
Must look at your videos on how to use your planes. Many thanks.
I haven't watched any of your content before, I feel like this was recommended to me at random.
It was amazing, great video! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and research, it was super interesting! Packed with information yet concise, no filler bullshit. Your passion for the subject really came through as well. I really enjoyed watching this and learning a bit about steel from it!
Definitely do more videos like this, not just because the algorithm seems to like it; I've been interested in the history of metalworking and how it turned from an art to a science, and this kind of content is always nice to see. It's good to learn something new on the topic, and your exposé was great!
This was a great watch; FWIW, you are really good at this! I'm a metallurgical newbie and this really helped. The way the history, the processing technology, the economics, the big names, and the products intertwine is fascinating. I'm still not clear on the difference between "tool steel" and "cast steel for tools" however! Oh, and by way of gentle advice, I grew up between Manchester & Sheffield in the UK and Mr Barraclough's name is pronounced "Barracluf"......I know, it's weird, and you're of course free to pronounce it however you like but I thought you'd like to know!
Great video, but do you have any more info on the image at 8:26? I believe those are 1890 Myers toroidal propellers which I was unable to find a picture of, got any source info so I can try to add it to the wiki page?
The photo is from a promotional book that Firth and Sons put together in the late 1890s. Unfortunatly, there's no info about the propellers, not even a date when it was taken archive.org/details/thosfirthsonslim00firtrich/page/78/mode/2up
Thanks to a personal interest in the history of technologies, I had known __some__ pieces of this (the developments of blister steel, crucible steel, the Bessemer process, and the open hearth process), but you filled in a lot of gaps in my understanding. It hadn't quite occurred to me until you pointed it out that the Bessemer/open hearth processes and the cast crucible process actually complemented each other, filling the niches their counterpart left empty.
I'd also gotten an inkling of Bessemer's ... personality ... previously, but I hadn't realized he was quite that cutthroat!
Thank you for this fascinating video!
Well done!
Here in UK Bessemer was a hero when I was at school in the 50s and 60s (Britain did everything best, so we were told), so it was fascinating to see it from a different perspective.
I thought your presentation style was excellent, and having spent my career teaching and researching in University, and being on BBC TV programmes, I understand the special skill you have.
Did you use a teleprompter, or was this from memory? However, I am impressed.
If I reply, where does my comment appear? Oh. Of course. Right here. Thank you.
Abraham, this was great. More of this, and more restoration videos. Whatever fascinates you will fascinate me.
The final 10 seconds gave me goosebumps, please make more
I like the way you're telling the story. Highlighting what's important and what are side notes to the history.
This video is a huge eye opener for history of technology enthusiasts. I wish it was much longer and more detailed. Thanks...
That was top-notch in terms of delivery 10/10, and content 10/10. On a SFW channel, you couldn't have done much better!
Great video! Bring on more, please. Very interesting, and I'd love to hear more.
It is also a fact that Herr Krupp played a personal part in investigating Bessemer steel for his own process. The matter was to some extent made available because of the properties of the coal used in the process.
You cannot use coal to make steel. The sulfur in coal contaminates the steel. You can turn coal into coke and make steel though. But that took a surprisingly long time to discover.
@@1pcfred I don’t disagree with your science. I was making the point in short form that the coal of Britain and that of the Ruhr differ and that is in the sulphur content. It was not until the coking process was eventually undertaken as you describe that Krupp began to further his industrial career which until then had been promoting the manufacture of cutlery by form of rolling presses if my memory of his history is correct.
@@glynluff2595 no one used coal to produce steel because the steel made was worthless. They all used charcoal. Because that worked.
Interesting video.
You mentioned Siemens open hearth furnace, but seemed to have eluded that it just made "mild steel" of similar quality to the Bessemer process.
The open hearth process made higher quality steel, and many different grades of steel well beyond what the Bessemer converter could make. The one advantage the Bessemer converter had was speed versus the open hearth process which took a very long time to refine each heat (probably 8 to 12 hours or so).
The electric furnace was indeed used to make smaller tonnages of specialty alloys, and tool steels.
The Bessemer converters were kept around to make steels for simpler products such as steel pipe, but eventually were phased out entirely.
Don't know when they were phased out but I was a 19 year old at RTB Llanwern in its' construction phase, about 1961/62, and they used bessemer type converters using oxygen as did its' twin plant at Ravenscraig. In 1962/63 I was at Consett Iron Works adding waste heat boilers to their bessemer type converters. The 'phasing out' must have been part of the de-industrialisation of UK starting circa '80's.
Both Llanwern and Ravenscraig were doomed to failure because MacMillan (PM at the time) insisted that there be two plants, instead of the one large one envisaged, for political reasons; neither plant was large enough to compete with european steel makers.
Please do keep making videos like this, maybe make a few videos on the history of steel, how iron became steel. What is added to make what alloys. And when. Also who did it and where they did it. You have the perfect voice for telling history! Its the right pace , tone and easy to listen to. Some people have a voice that is difficult to follow, as in anoying. Some people talk so slow you are like and, and what hqppened next .. i do hope xou made more historical videos , im going to check out your channel.
How did they make the crucibles? Seems like this material is 'meta' to steel making.
Very interesting video! Especially the account of Bessemer- I worked in Bessemer,AL for several yrs, and I’m sure it was named after him. You described a narcissist and they have been around for a hot minute! Thanks for sharing.
Well I wasn’t expecting to be watching a video on the steel made in Sheffield, the city I was born and raised in and still live there. My father was in the steel industry all his life. Great the hear so much about what went on here.
speaking without notes or a script.. obviously a complete mastery of the subject and detailed knowledge
his delivery was enthusiastic and passionate
This video, as all your videos are very well researched and interesting. Would only wished you made more videos. Greetings from Canada.
Nicely done! You really brought the history to life
Loved the video. Fascinating stuff. Please continue to put out these sorts of videos.
Fascinating subject and the historical aspects of it all just glued it all together. Thank you.
I am a welder, blacksmith, and machinist. Metallurgy has been part of my life since I worked with my Grandfather in the 1950s. Good history here! Thanks!
That was good. How we got here is important, if you have more like this please make them.
Very interesting and well presented. Please make more videos!
Thank you, super knowledge transfer! Plus, you picked up a new subscriber. Diving into your library now, loving it! 👍👍👍
Awesome. I loved the details and would have enjoyed an even more in depth examination of this subject.
Please do more. History is a messy business and this talk was fascinating. Thank you.
I have a casual interest in steel and metallurgy. This video was outstanding. Didn't get into the weeds. I think you did a great job for the Every Man viewer.
Liked and shared.
My little river town lived and died with the steel industry. A lot of us developed an interest due to this regionality of the metal, it's economic potential, and the change in the American Way.
Excellent video & content. Appreciate the deep dive into the finer aspects of things that we just take for granted that make things work like we expect them to.
I only discovered your channel and Substack a few months back, and enjoy the content and education you give.
Thanks
Thank you!
I have never seen any of your videos before. I found it interesting. Good luck in the future.
Great presentation! Really liked the explanations of the various steels, manufacture, as well as the history. Just having a too in your hand and using it for me is not enough, the question of who, how and why give the tool more value.
it is my first time here. but an historical voice over while restoring something related to it would be a hit!
This was a superlative video. I dont know why you havent put up more nine months later. Enjoy this channel a lot.
Never seen your vids before, but this is the kind of stuff I like.
I was glued to my screen! Great presentation and content.
A magnificent presentation and explanation. A lovely flow to it and enormously informative. Thank you so much.
Amazing video. Thank you for the effort and time you put into making it.
What a great teacher you are!
This was so interesting, thanks for putting it together!
FASCINATING !!! I’d no idea of any of this. More like this please !
Now I have a question. Would it have been possible to take the Bessimer mild steel and introduce more carbon while forging it and make a good hard steel? My understanding of mild steel is that it is just a low carbon steel. So it just seems like if you put it in a furnace heated it up and started adding some carbon and banging on it and then temper and harden it, then it seems like that would give you some good hard steel. Did the Bessemer steel have a lot of impurities, and couldn't those impurities be worked out with a forge?
Yes, my thoughts exactly. In the video, he highlights a clip of Bessemer's autobiography that mentions "carburization," so perhaps the man was really on to something?
Bessemer did produce steels with various carbon content
Very interested video. I don't know much about the steel industry so this was very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to make the video and bringing us this infomation
8:28 - nice shot of a couple of (clearly) early examples of toroidal screws - a mere century before they've been rediscovered!!!
Excelent Video! Presentation was Spot On, This Content was Most Informitive! Thought I knew a lot already, but I just Learned This!
Many Thanks!
Just found your channel-EXCELLENT VIDEO-very informative, nice presentation.
It is indeed possible to produce Bessemer steel with high carbon content like the one of crucible steel,Bessemer steel is not necessarily mild steel.The molten pig iron(which is cast iron with a very high carbon content,which can be produced by carboreduction of various ores,including the high purity magnetite from Sweden) is totally decarburized by the jet of air,then high manganese cast iron is added in order to form the high melting point MnS on the grains borders which prevents hot shortness.The right amount of carbon can be introduced afterwards. There were Bessemer converters producing steel for rails a century after the introduction of the patent m.ua-cam.com/video/_SusLrBIck8/v-deo.html. I can't understand where the lie is 😅.Even sir Joseph Whitworth said that ores being equal ,the Bessemer steel/homogeneus metal can be made of high quality.