Six of the photos are from Woodford Photography Club, others by DBW.
At the second Woodford Furnace Festival in Woodford, County Galway, Ireland, 19–25 August 2019, some 30 invited experts from nine countries gathered to demonstrate and experiment with various ways of smelting iron as well as steelmaking and other siderurgical operations. They produced over 200 kg of iron, much of which was then used by smiths to make useful and artistic objects. Some of these were auctioned off to support next year’s festival
Here I have followed one of the many bloomery smelts, on Saturday 24 August..
Gerlianne Paulus and Romain Bohr, from Luxemburg, took the initiative for the smelt. Romain was the leader. Many friends helped.
2018
Photos: 1. Keith Armitage; 2–3. Maria Arians-Kronenberg
At the Furnace Festival the previous year, Jake Keen had done a smelt with a furnace he built after an African design. After the smelt the furnace was not badly damaged, so it was allowed to remain for use again in 2019. This is the furnace that Gerlianne and Romain used.
Maria Arians-Kronenberg plugged the original tuyère hole and fixed the big hole in the top of the shaft with the fragments of the old furnace and a mixture of clay and horse manure, The original furnace was built with straw as a reinforcement. Monica Hynes assisted.
Aquila Cooper set a fire to dry the furnace.
DBW
Meanwhile Romain installed the tuyère. Unlike Jake’s tuyère, this one goes through a ‘tuyère block’ of fireclay at the mouth of the furnace. It was made and dried on top of the furnace a few days before by Maria and Sarah Folschweiller (first and second photo).
The large tuyère, of fireclay,
had been used in a smelt the previous day and was somewhat burned down. To get the required length Romain added the smaller tuyère, which was an industrial tuyère retrieved from an abandoned blast furnace works.
The two were ‘glued’ together with a commercial kaolin that the Festival made available.
The Y-pipe leading into the tuyère includes a viewing tube that allows a look at what is happening inside the furnace.
DBW
The ore was a mixture of two Irish bog ores. From Derryarkin, County Offaly, was a very rich ore with about 90% Fe2O3. The ore from Kilchreest was about 60%
Fe2O3. The Derryarkin ore consisted of soft lumps which Monica broke up.
Some of the charcoal had been made nearby in the weeks up to the festival. Some was purchased commercially. As can be seen, it had to be broken to smaller-sized pieces..
DBW
When the furnace was thoroughly dry, it was filled with charcoal and the blast was started. Kevin Keary assisted.
DBW
Some cracks appeared around the tuyère, and Romain patched them with wet clay.
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 14:10 |
 14:10 |
 14:20 |
 14:41 |
 14:52 |
DBW
Charging began. Every ten minutes, 1 kg ore followed by 1 kg charcoal . . .
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DBW
Romain poked the furnace.
Monica explained to visitors what was happening.
 15:03 |
 15:13 |
 15:23 |
 15:33 |
 15:38 |
 15:44 |
 16:14 |
 16:24 |
DBW
Charging continued . . .
If you look closely you can see liquid slag dripping down inside the furnace.
| 16:24 |
16:34 |
 16:54 |
 17:04 |
Charging continued . . .
 16:29 |
 16:31 |
16:47 |
 17:02 |
Romain removed slag from the furnace.
Aquila patched some cracks.
 17:15 |
 17:24 |
 17:25 |
17:35 |
 Gerlianne Paulus |
 17:55 |
 18:15 |
 18:46 |
Charging continued . . .
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18:20 |
 18:23 |
And patching continued . . .
18:46 |
 19:05 |
DBW
The last charge was at 18:46, and then the furnace was allowed to burn down.
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Gerlianne Paulus
Aquila kept the log.
The bloom was removed from the furnace and hammered to consolidate it and remove a large part of the slag.
Mathias Fischer wielded the big wooden hammer.
Romain Bohr, Monica Hynes, Aquila Cooper, Gerlianne Paulus, Kevin Keary DBW |
 Gerlianne Paulus |
Paul Rondelez |
