Author: Jeremy Hodgkinson

EXPERIMENTAL SMELTING

The group carries out experiments in a bloomery furnace similar to those that were operated in the Weald from pre-Roman times until the end of the Middle Ages.

Smelt Days 2025

1st Smelt Saturday 5th July
Standby day Saturday 12th July should weather be unsuitable

2nd Smelt Saturday 6th September.
(No standby day as WIRG at Fernhurst Furnace Open Weekend 13 & 14 Sept)

Smelts take place at Pippingford Park which is about six miles south of East Grinstead off the A22, between Wych Cross and Nutley.  We will be there from early Saturday morning to preheat the furnace and expect to start charging ore at about 11am with the drawing of the furnace around 3.30pm.

If you wish to attend please contact Tim Smith at the Secretary for detailed instructions how to find the site which is in woodland, and also so you can be informed should the event have to be postponed due to weather conditions which can be too wet (as we use an electrical pump) or too dry as the latter is a fire risk to the surrounding woodland.

Attendance requires participants to be members of WIRG. If you are not a member an application form can be downloaded from application form (PDF). The Membership fee is £15 and includes a bi-annual Newsletter and the annual Bulletin Wealden Iron and the option to attend a programme of fieldwork in the autumn and winter, as well as bi-annual meetings with visiting speakers, small-scale excavations, and a variety of other projects undertaken by its members.

 

Historical Metallurgy Society Festival of Metals

24 and 25 May 2025

Butser Ancient Farm, Hampshire PO8 0BG
(close to Portsmouth, UK)

Join the Historical Metallurgy Society for a weekend of all things metal !

Find out more here

Renowned researchers and craftspeople will share their skills and knowledge at Butser Ancient Farm on the weekend of 24 and 25 May 2025. Demonstrations of various metalworkers will take place while national and international researchers are presenting big-picture overviews of their findings. In-depth talks on the history of metal objects next to the creation of ‘metal art’.

There will be a raffle and an auction for replica historical metal objects. All made by our demonstrations. Auction on Sunday 25 May at 3pm.

You can book your tickets via Eventbrite https://festivalofmetals.eventbrite.co.uk

More Paintings of Early-Modern Ironworks

Following on from Tim Smith’s article in Newsletter 77 on the painting of ironworks by the artist Herri met de Bles that hangs in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the Grohmann Museum of the School of Engineering in Milwaukee, USA, has a collection of paintings of people in work situations. The collection includes two paintings by Marten van Valckenborch (1534-1612) which show furnaces and forges probably in the Meuse valley of southern Belgium.
Marten and his brother Lucas produced many paintings of similar scenes with ironworks as either the main subject or merely as features in the landscape.

A river valley with iron mining scenes, 1612; Marten van Valckenborch (Grohmann Museum, Milwaukee).

A smelt using the new reciprocating blower

In a move towards greater authenticity in our smelting experiments at Pippingford Park we have switched from our vortex blower, which supplies a constant flow of air, to an electrically driven reciprocating pump kindly denoted to WIRG by Peter Crew who conducted numerous experimental smelts using this in North Wales. Designed and built by Roger Miles, using a section of mains water pipe as the cylinder and a motor from a washing machine, the reciprocating pump better simulates blowing with bellows. This would have been the method used in early times, but requires a number of fit personnel to supply air for the duration of a day’s smelt.

Our latest smelt revealed both the change in colour of the flame as reduction takes place with the flame at the start being yellow and luminous as carbon monoxide is burning away, then fades to a more transparent flame as the ore consumes carbon monoxide during reduction. The flame returns to a luminous state during ‘burn down’ once all the ore has been reduced.

A temperature profile during the smelt shows a general fall in temperature while reduction takes place, as this is an endothermic (takes heat) reaction. This is best seen following the red line which is the thermocouple in the hotter position, closest to the reduction region.

A TV reporter from Meridian News filmed part of the smelt, interviewing me, and also Jeremy Hodgkinson, Jonathan Prus and Judie English the following weekend at the Fernhurst Open Day. You can see the filmed sequence HERE

Our final smelt for the season is scheduled for Saturday 8 October.  Should you wish to come, but the weather forecast be wet, check with Tim (01403 710148) on the Friday evening to see if we have had to postpone.

Tim Smith

Click HERE to see a short video of the different stages of the smelt (66.3Mb -Be patient!).

Help Needed – Who owns Roman sites?

Our sponsored PhD student Ethan Greenwood is planning his post-doctoral project, which will look further into Roman sites in the Weald. In these restricted times it will not be possible for him to call on prospective owners of sites to seek access to them, so he is appealing to WIRG members for help in identifying who owns some of these sites.

Details of the Roman sites can be found by following THIS LINK.

If you know a person who owns one or more of these sites, please pass on their contact details (address, phone number or email) to Ethan Greenwood so he can get in touch with them.